U.S. Senate quietly votes to cut tariffs on hundreds of Chinese goods

[s0me0nesmind1]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As trade tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing, the U.S. Senate quietly passed legislation on Thursday that would lower trade barriers on hundreds of items made in China.

With no debate, the Senate unanimously passed a bill that would cut or eliminate tariffs on toasters, chemicals and roughly 1,660 other items made outside the United States.

Nearly half of those items are produced in China, according to a Reuters analysis of government records

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...fs-on-hundreds-of-chinese-goods-idUSKBN1KG35R

Looks like there is some sanity left.

As a side note: I really don't think both sides should be able to put in tariffs, if anything the senate/house should in the first place instead of just the POTUS team.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

If China also cuts tariffs in return Trump and Fox will claim that those cuts are because of him being so hard on them and them being scared.

 

[trenchfoot]

Possibly another one of those Trump tricks where his incompetence and hubris creates a problem for himself and then his humiliating walk-back mysteriously becomes how he "successfully forced the other guys to see things his way".

There's just no end to this tragi-comedy that Trump and his enablers have dragged the nation through. How Trump can still manage to keep that smug Mussolini style posture of his throughout this self-inflicted debacle of his is rather amazing to behold.

 

[WelshBloke]

How Trump can still manage to keep that smug Mussolini style posture of his throughout this self-inflicted debacle of his is rather amazing to behold.

This is because he doesn't have a clue as to what the fuck is going on.

 

[trenchfoot]

This is because he doesn't have a clue as to what the fuck is going on.

And when he does find out due to the severe backlash he gets every time he rear ends himself in that clown car of his, he reverses course and rear ends himself in the opposite direction. The idiot can't figure out why he's being rear ended when his car is the only car on the street.

 

[Hugo Drax]

How easy is it for American buisness to sell goods and services in china?

 

[sdifox]

How easy is it for American buisness to sell goods and services in china?

Off the top of my head
There is more iphone in use in China than US.
Buick is considered a premium brand
American baby formula is hot item.
Lots of non gmo grain
Beef and pork
I am sure there are many more.

 

[Engineer]

Off the top of my head
There is more iphone in use in China than US.
Buick is considered a premium brand
American baby formula is hot item.
Lots of non gmo grain
Beef and pork
I am sure there are many more.

The bolded above are made in China so not really sure that's an apples to apples comparison when talking about tariffs.

 

[sdifox]

The bolded above are made in China so not really sure that's an apples to apples comparison when talking about tariffs.

He was asking about American goods and services. Globalisation means things are made where it is cheapest to make, profit still flows to America.
Bigger problem for US is tax laws allowing offshore profit hiding.

 

[shortylickens]

The bolded above are made in China so not really sure that's an apples to apples comparison when talking about tariffs.

I dont think you understand. iphones are very expensive and Chinese are very poor. The vast majority of shit they make for rich Americans is simply out of reach for them.
You know where most stolen American iphones end up?
China. They can only afford them on the black market. Retail is way too much for them.

 

[sdifox]

I dont think you understand. iphones are very expensive and Chinese are very poor. The vast majority of shit they make for rich Americans is simply out of reach for them.
You know where most stolen American iphones end up?
China. They can only afford them on the black market. Retail is way too much for them.

There are quite a few rich Chinese you know.

 

[Thump553]

This is the same Senate that passed (along with the House) new Russian mandatory sanctions that were supposed to go into effect last October. Trump signed the bill (it was veto proof) but then ignored it.. Congress did absolutely nothing about that, not even made a feeble protest.


In short, this is a cover my ass move for the upcoming election, not a real attempt at restaining a rogue President. And nothing is going to change until the leadership of both the House and the Senate fall into Democratic hands, for then they can control the agenda.

 

[Newbian]

American baby formula is hot item.

To be fair letting babies drink plastic is probably not a good idea so I guess that could be why.

 

[brandonbull]

I dont think you understand. iphones are very expensive and Chinese are very poor. The vast majority of shit they make for rich Americans is simply out of reach for them.
You know where most stolen American iphones end up?
China. They can only afford them on the black market. Retail is way too much for them.

I'm very confident that China has more billionaires than the US.

 

[brandonbull]

This is the same Senate that passed (along with the House) new Russian mandatory sanctions that were supposed to go into effect last October. Trump signed the bill (it was veto proof) but then ignored it.. Congress did absolutely nothing about that, not even made a feeble protest.


In short, this is a cover my ass move for the upcoming election, not a real attempt at restaining a rogue President. And nothing is going to change until the leadership of both the House and the Senate fall into Democratic hands, for then they can control the agenda.

Sounds like a lot of weak politicians not willing to stand up to China. China is such a great and fair trade partner.. said no one ever. I think it fairly universal about death, taxes, and China screwing everyone else over.

 

[hal2kilo]

There are quite a few rich Chinese you know.

The poor guys are buying up Vancouver BC and Seattle real estate like nobodies business.

 

[1prophet]

He was asking about American goods and services. Globalisation means things are made where it is cheapest to make, profit still flows to America.
Bigger problem for US is tax laws allowing offshore profit hiding.

Cheapest was the bait the Chinese used to lure the me first greedy American corporate types in,

while these corporate types brainwashed Americans that the guy with a high school education at best on the factory floor was an overpaid deplorable and shouldn't be making the same or more than someone with a college education working in an office somewhere so nobody cared if their jobs got outsourced,

these brilliant CEO's and directors too busy stroking each other in their global race to the bottom while they siphoned the profits to the top using every trick and tax loophole their bought and paid for politicians gave them, failed to see the long term Chinese strategy and it involves much more than cheap labor.

Tim Cook of Apple explains it and many of our geniuses here still haven't come to terms or are in denial with the damage done to this countries manufacturing sector because of the stereotype of some uneducated guy on the factory floor is all that was lost.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/...re-forced-to-make-it-in-america/#3ad46f672d2a
"
There’s a confusion about China… the popular conception is that companies come to China because of low labor cost. I’m not sure what part of China they go to but the truth is, China stopped being the low labor cost country many years ago and that is not the reason to come to China from a supply point of view…


…the reason is because of the skill… and the quantity of skill in one location… and the type of skill it is. The products we do require really advanced tooling. And the precision that you have to have in tooling and working with the materials that we do are state-of-the-art. And the tooling skill is very deep here.


In the U.S. you could have a meeting of tooling engineers and I’m not sure we could fill the room. In China you could fill multiple football fields.


Tooling engineering is a highly skilled position that requires years of training and experience. It is an “analog” type skill that combines artisanal craftsmanship with precision engineering skills. And as Mr. Cook alludes to later in the talk, the Chinese have developed and scaled these skills over the last three decades while the U.S. and other countries have gone the other direction and de-emphasized them:


It’s that vocational expertise is very deep here [in China]. And I give the educational system a lot of credit for continuing to push on that even as others were de-emphasizing vocational. Now I think many countries in the world have woke up and said this is a key thing and we’ve got to correct that but China called that right from the beginning."



Most Americans especially college educated ones who look at those working with their hands, whether on the factory floor or in the trades, as some uneducated buffoon that couldn't make it into college don't realize they only see the tip of the ice berg,

its the highly skilled tool makers, manufacturing engineers, millwrights, and many other highly skilled disciplines that can't be learned from some book or college course that this country lost to China, many never to return.

That is why the United States will diminish and China will increase and Trump's tariffs are too late in the game to have the effect he thinks they will.