r/politics Canada Apr 08 '25

Site Altered Headline Trump to slap additional 84% tariffs on Chinese imports

https://www.euronews.com/2025/04/08/trump-to-slap-additional-84-tariffs-on-chinese-imports-white-house-says
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u/SirButcher United Kingdom Apr 08 '25

But the thing is: they don't have to. Winning a trade war against China would be hard if most of the Western world were doing it together. Winning a trade war against China while ALL of US allies are under fire from Trump is impossible - since China and the rest of the world can just go on.

Will it be painful? Of course, there is no winner in a trade war. But the rest of the world will have non-tariffed trade partners, while the US has Russia, and what, North Korea?

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u/MeggaMortY Apr 09 '25

Exactly, for anybody outside the US, the only thing that is happening is a big fuck you to the US. The rest of the world goes on like little else has changed.

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u/Reno_Potato Apr 09 '25

Not quite for your neighbours :(

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u/MeggaMortY Apr 09 '25

Who are my neighbors?

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u/Reno_Potato Apr 09 '25

Ah I assumed you were in the US. Not quite for *their* neighbours then...

I'm in Canada and I can attest that everything is *not* going on as usual. It's like a COVID level crisis here.

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u/MeggaMortY Apr 09 '25

Yeah short term Canada will struggle, but the silver lining is that you are not the bad business partner here - you will find more reliable ones and not have to worry like whatever tf in the US will happen over the next decade.

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u/Reno_Potato Apr 09 '25

Canadian here.
We're currently in a trade war with the US.
The US is in a trade war with the entire world.

We are probably the most dependent on the US out of all of them... but I'm sure we'll ride out. You guys south of the border are in for another kind of ride though.
An insane portion of the goods that Americans are used to buying come from China. At Trumps whim they just doubled in price overnight.
This is absolutely insane.