US President Donald Trump told world business leaders on Thursday to manufacture in the United States or face tariffs, in his first major speech to global leaders since returning to the White House this week. … “Come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation on earth,” Trump said today, speaking remotely to the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

“But if you don’t make your product in America, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff,” he added.

    • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Yup

      Make your products in the USA or force my constituents to pay inflated prices for everything.

      wait

        • tal@lemmy.today
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          2 days ago
          • Trump’s degree is in economics.

          • A lot of people who support Trump are worried about having low-skill jobs in areas that the US is not competitive in that pay well in the US, which is hard if they have to compete with the rest of the world.

          You may come to your own conclusions.

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        Hey, there is another option. Corporations could illegally decide to absorb the cost of the labour and tank their share prices.

        I’m not quite sure which option would implode the economy faster, but it would be a neat experiment.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        2 days ago

        Which in turn stimulates local production, which in turn leads to economic growth…

        Seriously people, Protectionism is a tried and tested method. In the right circumstances it is a powerful tool. The question is, whether these circumstances apply in the current US, but look at all industrialized nations. They used protectionism to grow their industries and now they oppose other countries protectionism to keep them small.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protectionism

        • kewjo@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          from your own source

          There is a broad consensus among economists that protectionism has a negative effect on economic growth and economic welfare, while free trade and the reduction of trade barriers has a positive effect on economic growth.

          A 2016 study found that “trade typically favors the poor”, as they spend a greater share of their earnings on goods, as free trade reduces the costs of goods

          So to reduce costs of goods we will make cheap items from China cost more so USA made can compete at a higher price. why doesn’t the math work here? how does this result in a better economy?

          • funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works
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            15 hours ago

            such a fan of the quote from source disproving the original post.

            Only superceded by the double “this you?” screenshot

          • Saleh@feddit.org
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            In the right circumstances it is a powerful tool. The question is, whether these circumstances apply in the current US

            Is what i said.

            So to reduce costs of goods we will make cheap items from China cost more so USA made can compete at a higher price. why doesn’t the math work here? how does this result in a better economy?

            Because then manufacturers in the US employ people in the US, who then have more money to consume in the US. That requires the government to also work towards good wages though. Also it allows for industries to grow so they can use economics of scale to drive down their production prices and then their consumer prices.

            Again, for developing industries it can be crucial and is tried and tested. The question is whether that is what the US needs right now.

            • horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world
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              16 hours ago

              You don’t understand the current context then.

              Look up Bethlehem Steel. That’s the future of American production if Trump tries to use tarrifs to force local production.

              If you’re actually concerned about US production you’d lobby for subsidized labor to produce goods here. You’d lobby for stronger unions. If your lens is capitalism you need to outcompete your competition. And the current metric for that is labor costs and worker retention.

              Look up FoxConn. See how we’ve outsourced suppressed wages and the model of the company store to China.

        • It’s unlikely most manufacturers will make that investment, since they’ll have to deal with a significant upfront cost, increased running costs and likely counter-tarriffs, all for an ordeal that may well be completely undone in 2 to 4 years. In the meantime US inflation will grow again.

          Protectionism is not the main tool that helped countries industrialize, the creation of global trade and particularly deficit spending are to be credited for that. Protectionism is, particularly in the modern age, next to useless.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      I mean, he just threatened them on Russia despite our trade being nearly nonexistent with Russia for the past three years. So yeah.