Tariffs

[Analog Kid]

I think those tariffs, though, making BRICS alliance stronger and more united. 

I goddamn fucking hope so!

[Analog Kid]

Not sure how he intends to grow coffee in the US though.  That worries me.

Kona...they could expand operations.

Sure; just annex Nicaragua, Honduras and maybe one of them other coffee-producing banana republics down there.
it's all part of the Art of the Deal!

[Zero999]

Not sure how he intends to grow coffee in the US though.  That worries me.

Kona...they could expand operations.

Coffee will grow well in Hawaii and southern Florida, but it's obviously impossible to grow enough to meet the demand for the entire country.

Objectively speaking, I can see the logic behind tariffs. They're just a another tax. People don't like paying tax. Governments use tax to disincentivise people and companies from doing things which the government don't like: smoking, polluting the environment and in this case buying foreign goods. It's obviously going to make many things more expensive, but it will increase tax revenue to pay off the national debt and might incentivise companies to invest in local manufacturing, but that won't happen immediately.

I'm not arguing for or against tariffs. I'm being objective about it, rather than listening to the media hype.

[TimFox]

I’m still stumped as to what database lists Heard Island as a trading entity.

My quick Google suggests this site?

https://wits.worldbank.org/tariff/trains/en/country/USA/partner/HMD/product/all

Maybe Elon’s script kiddies just scraped the data?

An analysis of the "trading entities" on the CNN website used the CIA World Factbook to look up these unfamiliar locations.

"That is the exact case of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an Australian external territory in the southern Indian Ocean, which was hit with a 10% tariff.
The CIA World Factbook describes the uninhabited islands, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as “80% ice-covered” and “bleak” in the case of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands as “small” and “rocky.”
Economic activity there essentially ended in 1877, when the trade in elephant seal oil was ended and the human population of sealers left the remote islands, which are located en route from Madagascar to Antarctica."

[u666sa]

it will increase tax revenue to pay off the national debt

$36,214,668,169,114
You seriously think this much can be paid off?

I think defaulting is much more realistic option.

[nctnico]

Any plans? Strategies?

I guess one strategy is doing the same thing we did in 2020 and just design as generic as possible. Have board variants and multiple footprints for competing chips.

I guess it is a good idea to order what you want to buy asap if it has to cross over the US border. I sure did. 

[thm_w]

I'm not arguing for or against tariffs. I'm being objective about it, rather than listening to the media hype.

Or just read historically what has happened: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smoot-hawley-tariff-act.asp
You realize part of the justification was claiming VAT is a tariff right: https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2025/04/02/no-vat-isnt-a-tariff-but-the-us-would-benefit-from-adopting-it/

[EEVblog]

WARNING: If this thread devolves into Trump derangment syndrome territory or other such political fighting it will be locked.
Please keep it civil.
It's allowed because it potentially impacts our industry.

[TimFox]

History, not politics:
Before the new tariffs imposed by presidential decree, the two most important tariffs now considered counter-productive were passed by the US Congress, following the Constitution in Article I, Section 8.
The "McKinley Tariff Act" of 1890 imposed a broad tariff, averaging roughly 50%, intended to protect US manufacturers.
At that time, McKinley was a US Representative, and was later elected to an assassination-shortened term as President.
https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1851-1900/The-McKinley-Tariff-of-1890/
The infamous "Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act" of 1930 was comparable.
https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Senate_Passes_Smoot_Hawley_Tariff.htm

Shortly before the 1930 tariff passed, Ogden Nash referred to Senator Smoot (R-Ut) in a different controversy:

Senator Smoot (Republican, Ut.)
Is planning a ban on smut.
Oh rooti-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut.
And his reverend occiput.
Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut.,
Grit your molars and do your dut.,
Gird up your l__ns,
Smite h_p and th_gh,
We’ll all be Kansas
By and by.

[thm_w]

121GW - made in Korea - 26% tariff
BM786 - made in Taiwan - 32% tariff
Vietnam - 46%
China - 54%

It very clearly will impact the electronics industry if implemented, given most semiconductors and components are from Vietnam/China/Taiwan.

[tom66]

Strategy? Wait for Trump to get bored of this plan and change it.  It took about a year last time (Trump's first term), once it was clear he wasn't getting his way.  It's probably not worth redesigning things unless the cost is so tight.  And I suspect that the midterms will force him to change.

The worst thing you could do right now is move production into the US in response to the tariffs - you can't let bullies win.

[The Soulman]

I can think of more than a few manufacturers that build their products in the USA mostly from imported parts and most of their customers are outside the USA.

With all those tariffs wouldn't it make more business sense to move that factory/assembly plant to a different country (which could have other benefits such as lower wages)?

I can see how the tariffs can help with the long term (decades) goal of bringing manufacturing back to the states, but at the same time the short term (years) can get real ugly real fast.
Hoping for the best, but I'm wondering what I'm missing here, are "they" that "brave" to risk the huge initial backfire or is it more refined and complicated than this soup-sandwich appears to the naked eye?
 
*this reply was written out of one technicians genuine interest in the economics of this topic, please keep further comments also on the technical/economics side of things.*

[BrianHG]

Tensions + market forces between Canada and USA have just made it that much harder to get seed funding for my 2 US patents.

Luckily, the US pharmaceutical industry will ensure that the US & world patent system will still hold... For now...

Crashing that system will really mess up secured profits from too many big players all at once.

[sleemanj]

It's kinda been slipped under the radar a bit, but it should be noted that as a bit of a "just one more thing" Trump announced that the de minimis is ending (again) [edit to add: for parcels from China/Hong Kong], and in a bit of a potentially confusing, and expensive way.

I won't bother going into detail, but suffice to say if you are a USA person and are importing your cheap PCBs (or any other stuff) from China, they might not be very cheap from May onwards, and it might get even worse June onwards.

The anguish in /r/aliexpress is palpable.

Of course, who knows, tomorrow it might be all about face again.

[SiliconWizard]

Not commenting on this too much, but just mentioning something that is rarely mentioned as of late: most (if not all) of the big tech US companies have a large chunk of their activities delocalized in very low-tax countries (Ireland being one big contender for Europe), allowing them to escape US taxation to a large extent. I could understand how that would end up tickling the US a little bit.

It's sure unfortunate that it would harm the smaller companies that do nothing like this, but I'm pretty sure this is mostly a temporary bargaining lever.

[all_repair]

it will increase tax revenue to pay off the national debt

$36,214,668,169,114

US national debt Interest was growing at 18% per year for last 10years, no country GDP or GNP on earth grow at this rate, ever.  Anyone thinks increasing tax in whatever form can help got the logic wrong.  The system and the people are broken.  Bigger tax shall feed even bigger spending by the broken system,  that was how it got started in the first place  Biden started the killing of the USD as the world currency.  That actually would solve the deficits problem in the short future without Trump tarrif, Trump just hasten the process.
When USD is no more the world reserve currency,  it world would help US keep its balance of account to herself.

[themadhippy]

Biden started the killing of the USD as the world currency.  That actually would solve the deficits problem in the short future without Trump tarrif, Trump just hasten the process.
When USD is no more the world reserve currency,  it world would help US keep its balance of account to herself.

So why is trump threatening 100% tarriffs on  any country's replacing the "mighty dollar" as its world trading currency?

[MT]

US debt clock, 36T USD and counting https://www.usdebtclock.org

[bte]

I know this thread is about US tariffs against various countries and people discussing various aspects of it. I just want to provide another perspective of what could happen instead of tariffs: Due to new regulations here that went into effect at the same time as these tariffs, any entity who wants to sell to residents of Turkey is required to open up a branch here (or "keep a representative", whatever that means). In other words, gone are the days of buying stuff from Ebay (we couldn't buy from Ebay anyways since we don't have Paypal but that was just one example) or any other vendor (in the context of EE, "ordering PCBs from China PCB houses" comes to mind as another example).

Amazon already has a presence here so I am assuming big players like AliExpress can handle it fine (so far they didn't do anything; the regulations were set five months ago). And from what I see, those mega-stores will be about it when it comes to purchasing stuff online. Our limit is already low (30 EUR including shipping); now with the new regulations we are being told to eff-off without saying it openly.

Enjoy your import privileges before they are nibbled away one way or another.

[coppercone2]

100% tarrif is better then that policy

[Analog Kid]

100% tarrif is better then than that policy

Don't you know how to write proper English?
(Never mind that other misspledding.)

[johnboxall]

mmm wonder if i could set up as a man in the middle,yanks buy from me,i buy from china  so only 10% tarriff(plus my cut)instead of 54%

We're planning to do that for our larger customers in the US. A couple have already said they're happy to eat the extra two weeks for us to re-route their stuff via Australia.

[Simmed]

look at that list
wow
so the "good friends" = 10% ? 
i think this list is not 100% accurate
because trumps chart is 67% on china

[Analog Kid]

I found this article on the tariffs from NPR.
Not a big fan of NPR: they're one of the most biased sources of info in my estimation.
But this is a pretty good, even-handed, simple but not condescending explanation of what the tariffs are, what they hope to accomplish and what they might actually do.

(TL:DR: prices are gonna go up! at least for those of us here in the US)

[JPortici]

At this moment my only direct concern is components and how much markup will our contractor add because of "tariffs". Not that we buy any components manufactured in the US, but in case we need something quick they/we buy from digikey/mouser.
Is it finally time for a good european distributor? (Nope, not farnell. Nope, not RS. Nope, not TME) THough i fear it's going to be another asian giant opening shop here.

Cars, who wants american cars?
Food? 
Big Tech / Online services, i hope they go hard on FAGMAN as retaliation, unless maybe they start paying the taxes they are due for all the money they make from us.
Niche items maybe: some of the few snowboard brands o some musical instruments they don't manufacture here, something like that.

How does a tariff on an uninhabited island that produces nothing affect you?

It hints at the arbitrary whim of the entire tariff plan, which could see tariffs applied to anyone for any or no reason.

I am pretty sure that without the tariffs we would have seen a booming import/export industry from those islands . I can see the rationale

900 temporary laid off at stellantis as a direct result of tariffs, bringing manufacturing jobs back is working well.

yes, that is definetly the reason  not the former CEO going forward with a strategy that completely destroyed all brands, slowly but inevitably, and now using any excuse to point the finger elsewhere