# Retaliatory tariffs **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [January 24, 2025, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322 "2025-01-24T04:48:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 38
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/741 "2025-07-10T16:15:55Z")
Well, it won’t be subject to a tariff when we start building smelters again, so we can refine all that copper ore we produce right here in the U.S.A.! Personally, I think we ought to pass a law that all smelters built must be sited upwind of a Trump-owned resort. Let’s see how far deregulatory fever goes in the Trump administration! ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/742 "2025-07-10T16:30:48Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > Maybe US groceries should do what a lot of Canadian ones are doing - sticking labels on shelves to identify which items are Canadian sourced/made and which are affected by the Trump Tariffs. Amazon floated that idea a few months ago. Didn’t even implement it. Trump and the GOP were infuriated, and Bezos backed down. If the onetime world’s richest man can’t stand up to the MAGA anger machine, your local grocery store certainly can’t. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/743 "2025-07-10T16:34:24Z")
No… but we can leave the little stickers on the produce. Like the cheerful ones on the avocados that say “MEXICO!” _We_ didn’t put them there, and we don’t want to mess with the producer/shipper label(s), right? Right? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/744 "2025-07-10T20:45:55Z")
It’s all about Trump looking tough. Getting results is secondary. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/745 "2025-07-10T20:56:05Z")
But he is not looking tough. He is looking petty, capricious, stupid, and wrong. Is nobody telling him this to his face? No, of course not, stupid question. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/746 "2025-07-10T21:13:08Z")
Emperor Trump is also wearing the most beautiful, exquisitely tailored new clothes that the world has ever seen. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2025, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/747 "2025-07-10T22:11:45Z")
To a very (too) large percent of the population what we consider petty, capricious, stupid, and wrong looks though. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/748 "2025-07-12T17:07:26Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > To a very (too) large percent of the population what we consider petty, capricious, stupid, and wrong looks though “If someone can act up all ignorant and abusive and hurt others and no one can physically punish them for it, THAT is being powerful!” ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/749 "2025-07-16T13:46:46Z")
A couple of extracts from US based Australian economists on the tariff imbroglio: **Justin Wolfers:** The 11 reasons (to date) of why there is national security issue which justifies 45/47 bypassing Congress to impose tariffs: 1. Fentanyl from Canada 2. Illegal immigration from Canada and Mexico 3. Save manufacturing in the US mid-west 4. Boost national security 5. Avoid income tax increases 6. Resolve the US deficit 7. Leverage for the 90 deals in 90 days 8. Defend the position of the USD as reserve currency 9. Get Canada to drop it’s proposed digital service tax 10. Get Spain to spend more on defense 11. Keep Bolsonaro out of jail **Dmitry Grozoubinski** Five contradictory concepts behind on the benefit of US imposing tariffs: 1. Taxes imposed on arrival are revenue raisers being paid for by the exporters. 2. Tariffs force re-shoring manufacturing so it’s industry policy, not revenue raising. 3. Tariffs provide leverage to impose US domestic interests like fentanyl or immigration, not industry policy. 4. Tariffs are a generational geopolitical mechanism to impoverish China and preventing a military build-up. 5. Tariffs are negotiation strategy to facilitate, profit from and enjoy a game of extortion, concession and/or humiliation. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/750 "2025-07-16T16:12:32Z")
Nevermind. ---
**Author:** ![knavette57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knavette57/32/3871_2.png) [@knavette57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/knavette57)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/751 "2025-07-16T17:30:01Z")
_People still buy the ingredients, they just bitch about the price to the front-line peons._ If one has ever worked in the service industry, they know what a tough job it is. I have, and I am very polite to servers, cashiers, etc. Perhaps if a sign with the email of the company’s CEO were posted at every register, with a note to, “send all complaints to this person”, it might be a good reminder that the service worker doesn’t have a magic button under the counter to change the price. I have noticed that fresh fruit prices are decent. However, at this time of year we have many local options of peaches, watermelons, etc. Then it struck me that fertilizers and other farming equipment are probably subject to tariffs as well, and that with ICE arresting ag workers, even local products cannot escape the Tariff Terror. I could be wrong on this. I am not an economist, and anyone who knows more is welcome to weigh in. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2025, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322/752 "2025-07-16T19:41:59Z")
The big fertilizer issue is potash from Canada. See previous thread: > [@What the hell is "Potash?"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-hell-is-potash/1013436): > > Inspired by this quote from the “Retaliatory Tariffs” thread in Politics and Elections: I’d read about potash in my geography textbooks in fifth grade, but I never got a clear idea of what it IS. I guess about fifty years or so ago, I decided that it was a fancy jargonalicious name for potassium. Please, can someone save me a trip to Wikipedia? I don’t have much appetite for another round of “WIKIPEDIA IS NOT FOR SALE” pledge requests. Not today. TIA ETA: Do a good job with this, and next we… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/retaliatory-tariffs/1013322.md?page=37)