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Comment by Sgt_Apone | Hacker News Reader

Seems they reversed course on that. Or, they don’t know what they’re doing.

> It's been a confusing day.

> As Verity said, it turns out Canada and Mexico are not getting a new 10 per cent tariff after all.

> The White House reversed its earlier announcement in a new statement just now. Here's the bottom line: No new developments for Canada and Mexico today.

> That means there are still worldwide 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum, on some auto parts in North America, and on some goods traded within North America outside the rules of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade (CUSMA).

> The bottom line here: Trump is starting an economic war on China, and U.S. allies are all taking some friendly fire. But a large swath of Canadian trade is spared.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/livestory/trump-pauses-most-gl...

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> Or, they don’t know what they’re doing.

Occam's Razor.

They know what they are doing. The goal is decoupling from China. They raised tariffs on everyone to see which countries stood with US and which stood with China. Once each country has made their allegiance clear, they delay the deadline to give more time for negotiation. They likely want every ally to raise their tariffs on China to be very very high, to avoid any more transshipping from China.

But the EU announced retaliatory tarrifs, just they weren't yet in effect. Why did they get off scot free?

Presumably because those were in retaliation for the steel and aluminum tariffs, not the reciprocal tariffs. It takes them time to respond because the EU members must vote on it. We have yet to see what their action will be with the reciprocal tariffs.

Finally EU bureaucracy saves the day!

You’re joking, but it’s true. I’ve been living in Turkey on and off and I’m convinced that slow changing rules are indeed a blessing.

Unlike Europe, in Turkey rules and everything is changing all the time, you can’t count on anything to be the same the next 5 years. No one in the institutions knows how everything works, they only follow the computer instructions. You are getting a loan? its a mystery if you will be able to get the stated amount because if you are buying a house down the road the computer may ask for the energy efficiency rating and limit the amount based on that. They will say that it is to promote energy efficient buildings but that regulation will remain only for a year or two- not enough to change buildings practices but enough to limit the loans given without explicitly limiting the loans given.

It’s a horrible thing, you can’t plan anything and those with connections end up catching all the good temporary situations because the got tipped. The moment the masses start realizing the opportunity, the rules chage.

It has become a tool for giving favors to loyalists and created a lot of horrible people who got “lucky” with their investments. When the politicians feel like paying loyalists, they will change something in the law that will allow for previously non-developable land to become developable and loyalist will get tipped that they should buy the land before prices increase. It will be something non-obvious, like something about changing the category of a road or something that changes the status of the land when appealed.

UK has had a stable system for many hundreds of years. I don't think it's something that can't be done at the country level, you don't need the EU to do this too!

Sure, I'm just pointing out the wonders of a slow and stale bureaucracy

> reciprocal tariffs.

I find it curiously useful that Trump’s blatant lying can be used as a shibboleth. E.g.: they’re not reciprocal tariffs, so almost everyone calling them that is a “true believer” that accepts Trump at his word.

> they’re not reciprocal tariffs, so almost everyone calling them that is a “true believer” that accepts Trump at his word.

I disagree. Non Trump aligned media called them reciprocal tariffs. I don't know if identifying the lie was too controversial or they couldn't understand the equation the administration published. And non Trump aligned people called them reciprocal tariffs because they heard or read the phrase.

Ok, what do you call them so you don't confuse that round of tariffs with other ones? "April 2 tariffs" doesn't work because, while that day was when they were announced, the steel and aluminum tariffs also went into effect on that same day.

They are gambling that the rest of the world aren't going to coordinate against USA, let's see

I’m not sure they need to coordinate, except for the state of US Politics. Take the hit now, then seek a long term better deal elsewhere, with more stable policies.

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