by the way it's insane that we demanded concessions* from the UK to lower tariffs on them by ~2% but none from China to lower their tariffs by ~74%. Art of the Deal I guess
*the concessions were economically insignificant, but we didn't even get symbolic concessions from China
In general it's insane to have tariffs on the UK for like a million reasons. They're a close US ally, net importer of American goods, small overall trade partner. Like what are we doing here.
May 12, 2025 13:37I think it's a symptom of political confusion. By calling them reciprocal tariffs and providing a list of grievances over trade they seem retaliatory. But in fact another principal objective is protectionism, like Brazil's. So it is unclear what any given deal is supposed to achieve.
