This is The Formula Trump's Team Used to Calculate Tariffs

One clear sign that the Trump administration does not know what they're doing is not factoring the US's biggest export, services, in the formula.

Vietnam exports low value physical goods to the US. The US sells high value non-physical services such as Microsoft office, ChatGPT, Netflix, Facebook ads, iOS Appstore fees, iCloud subscriptions, etc to Vietnam. Other services include engineering, US consulting, etc. None of these are factored into the formula.

So a country like Vietnam gets royally screwed by this formula. They are actually buying way more from the US than just the physical goods.

If you're Vietnam, it's very hard to "just take it" as suggested by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. The formula is flawed in the first place.

If we truly want fair, the formula should be based on total profit of the goods and services sold. Services have much higher margins than physical goods typically.

Gift link: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-03/trump-s-r...

> Game theory? Never heard of it! I did watch A Beutiful Mind. Great film, wonderful film. I watched the first 20 minutes. You know, I thought it was about me. It could've been. Maybe it was. But I stopped watching. It was too boring.

- Trump