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Comment by devuo | Hacker News Reader

Comparing VAT to an Import Tax is unbelievably stupid.

It's important to remember that the point is not to be technically correct, the point is increased American isolationism and a weakened West

A page straight from Aleksandr Dugin's playbook for Russian dominance:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics

Indeed, it reads like a play-by-play of current events. What a coincidence.

A lot of what the maga team is doing is

That's what it says on the flag don't it?

On a tangent, Trump decided to punish Brazil be setting the import tax on ethanol as whatever Brazil sets for importing US ethanol.

Now that our government controls the domestic price of fuel in the US, it's too bad Lula doesn't seem to be in a trolish mood...

I do not understand what do you mean here?

If the president of Brazil, Lula, decides to increase import taxes, the US will mirror this decision. As a result, Lula has set a tax rate that US applies on imports and that US buyers end up paying to the US government.

The US is still entirely in control of the rate.

No, while you mirror, you are not in control. But sure, you can decide to stop the mirroring that you started even though now it puts you in a worse situation than where you started. Say, Lula sets the import tax at 100% - will Trump say "that's too high a number for me, I fold"? In that case, he wanted the rates to be the same but now the difference is even higher.

Yes, they have just decided not to control it and left it in the hands of Brazil.

If they are smart, they just won't follow on the promise... but they haven't being doing that kind of thing recently.

Anyway, we will probably not see any trolling, because increasing the tariffs from Brazil's side would be a minor economic setback, and there are elections next year.

I dunno, given the quality of talent at the top of the Trump administration I'd probably describe it as believably stupid.

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