Lowering Tariffs (?!?!) - Continuidade da guerra de agressão tarifária por Trump (Foreign Policy)

Foreign Policy (Nov. 14) relata as mais recentes medidas impositivas de Trump, o homem que acha que aumentando tarifas vai elevar o bem-estar dos consumidores americanos, e persiste em sua insana guerra tarifária. Apenas um relato das loucuras que deixam a situação pior dos dois lados em cada um desses casos de "acordos comerciais" (unilateralmente impostos aos parceiros dos EUA da forma mais burra possível):

Lowering Tariffs

U.S. President Donald Trump this week secured five new trade deal frameworks to reduce U.S. costs of living, foster greater foreign investment, and address Washington’s trade deficits with other nations. Whether these deals will be enough to reduce high U.S. grocery prices and counter Chinese competition on critical minerals, though, is still to be seen.

On Friday, the United States reached a dual trade deal with Switzerland and Liechtenstein that will lower tariffs from 39 and 37 percent, respectively, to 15 percent. The new rate, set to take effect within the next few weeks, is expected to offer much-needed relief to Bern, which received one of the highest U.S. duties in the world; Switzerland’s initial 39 percent levy was more than double the rate that Washington imposed on the European Union.

Trump justified his particularly high tariffs on Switzerland by pointing to the nation’s nearly $40 billion goods trade surplus with the United States in 2024. To address this, Bern committed on Friday to invest $200 billion during Trump’s second term in key U.S. industries such as pharmaceuticals and gold smelting. Of that, $70 billion is set to be invested next year. Switzerland also vowed to reduce import duties on U.S. industrial products, seafood, and agricultural goods “that Switzerland considers non-sensitive,” and it pledged to buy more Boeing commercial aircrafts.

That deal came one day after Washington struck similar frameworks with four Latin American nations: Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala, and El Salvador. These deals will keep overall U.S. tariffs of 10 percent on Argentina, Guatemala, and El Salvador and 15 percent on Ecuador, but they will remove U.S. duties on some select goods.

“You will see, for Ecuador for example, bananas is something they want to ship to us, so we expect tariffs will come off bananas,” a senior Trump administration official told the Financial Times, adding that levies could also be reduced on Latin American-exported coffee. Tariffs on textile and apparel products from Guatemala and El Salvador will also be lowered.

U.S. imports of Argentine beef, which originally faced a 10 percent tariff, are expected to now be exempted, though the United States likely won’t change its quota to expand the amount of Argentine beef entering the country. The beef exception highlights Trump’s friendly relationship with far-right Argentine President Javier Milei, whose country Trump gave a $40 billion bailout to despite anger from his fellow Republicans.

As part of the U.S. deals, all four Latin American countries also promised to refrain from imposing digital service taxes, which seek to regulate tech competition in a manner similar to the EU’s Digital Markets Act. They also committed to addressing intellectual property disputes and raising food, health, and safety standards. According to one administration official, the frameworks also included provisions related to critical minerals, which Trump is hoping to secure U.S. dominance over in an effort to curb China’s influence in the region.