> It's a simple formula based on balance of trade.
"Simple" is why it put 10% on an island with no humans and no manmade structures separately to the country which owns that island, and also tariffed another island that's technically British but which the British leased to the US military.
"Simple" isn't what you want to decide a complex trade policy for a complex economy.
> That's an absurdly biased point of view.
Hello, I'm in one of those foreign allies. We are, in fact, laughing at USA for shooting itself in the foot like this. On the other hand, the bit where Trump is also refusing to rule out military force to annex some of us? We take that seriously.
> Not much. They didn't actually "trust" us before. I'm not sure how you'd measure that anyways.
We used to hold the US in high regard. "Leaders of the free world" etc.
But also, relatively stable economic position, stable currency, reliable government that repaid debts, etc.
Even though Trump 1 happened, we knew it would come to an end, and we thought you would finally be over it — especially given how it ended.
Now, we don't. And many of us will be looking to China as a more reliable (for us) trading partner.
"Simple" is why it put 10% on an island with no humans and no manmade structures separately to the country which owns that island, and also tariffed another island that's technically British but which the British leased to the US military.
"Simple" isn't what you want to decide a complex trade policy for a complex economy.
> That's an absurdly biased point of view.
Hello, I'm in one of those foreign allies. We are, in fact, laughing at USA for shooting itself in the foot like this. On the other hand, the bit where Trump is also refusing to rule out military force to annex some of us? We take that seriously.
> Not much. They didn't actually "trust" us before. I'm not sure how you'd measure that anyways.
We used to hold the US in high regard. "Leaders of the free world" etc.
But also, relatively stable economic position, stable currency, reliable government that repaid debts, etc.
Even though Trump 1 happened, we knew it would come to an end, and we thought you would finally be over it — especially given how it ended.
Now, we don't. And many of us will be looking to China as a more reliable (for us) trading partner.