Bringing tariffs down in the past literally took decades. Politically it’s very hard, because the benefits of trade go to everyone and the benefits of tariffs go to special interests. As a rule, special interests tend to win out.

Because it’s arbitrary discrimination against their exporters. This is putting aside the forced purchases and investments Trump is demanding of various countries.

All these TACO memes are wearing pretty thin. Trump has instituted a minimum of 10% tariffs on all trading partners, with scant prospect of them ever lowering in the future even after his presidency (once tariffs go up, it’s very hard to bring them down because of the special interests that come to depend on them). He has strongarmed the EU, Japan, and other countries into accepting these permanently elevated tariff levels without retaliation. Only 3 countries have shown any sort of backbone against this: China, Canada, and Brazil (maybe India, but it’s too soon to say). In all the other cases, Trump ain’t the one chickening out, it’s the other side that abjectly folded.

(It doesn’t matter, by the way, if the Europeans intend to slow walk the investments and weapon purchases they promised to Trump, or whatever. That’s copium. The point is that they bent to Trump’s will, and once you cave to a bully, he’ll be back for more.)

That was the rice minister (really).

Hydropower is literally good for the climate.

Pretty much the same set of circumstances as in Europe. Slow economic growth + dissatisfaction about young voters + inflation + establishment party lacking any plan beyond muddling along => populist revolt => governing gets even harder and things get worse.

Chinese steel is cheaper than Canadian steel… Canadian steel is being targeted by tariffs in America, we need to make sure that as many Canadian companies as possible are using Canadian steel

This makes no logical sense. When Canadian steel are priced out of the US by tariffs, the supply available for domestic use goes up, which would normally cause the price to fall, already automatically reducing the price advantage of Chinese steel.

Basically, this is a convoluted way to keep steel prices high, to the detriment of Canadian manufacturers that use steel.

Protecting local industries a.k.a. pandering to special interests. Sectoral tariffs are just as corrupt and pernicious when Trump levies them on Canadian steel and cars, as when Canada levies them on other countries’ steel and cars.

France already has one of the most progressive tax systems in the OECD. Their main problem is the opposite: the tax system is too narrow. Generally, European welfare states function by levying high taxes on everyone. Problem with France is that they try to have a welfare state without taxing the middle class enough. For example, it levies 5% lower VAT than the Nordics, and grants lots more exemptions.

More specifically, the Hong Kong protests were about the possiblity of HKers being sent to the mainland. Here and now we have multiple actual renditions of US residents to El Salvador and elsewhere (including one of the protesters!)…

I gotta say, Hong Kongers put up way more of a fight than Americans seem to be. Hong Kong Polytechnic University went through a full blown siege in 2019. Six years later, in the land of the free, student leaders get picked off and any protests that manage to get going are easily crushed by the police.

The “cheap Chinese labor and lax laws” thing is not exactly the issue, at least not these days. The thing is that Chinese industry has spent decades working out how to refine these minerals, and they’re the only ones who are now able to do it at scale. So other countries that extract and process rare earths (which as noted aren’t actually that rare) often ship semi-processed ore to China for final processing.

Sure, other countries can replicate these capabilities if they’re willing to put in the effort. It’s like China’s challenge with EUV lithography, but in reverse. It will take significant time. Also, building up a rare earths processing industry probably involves not just spending capital, but also major environmental risks while you’re doing your trials.

The Afghans and Vietnamese had nothing to lose. Americans, no matter how much they complain online, have everything to lose.

Unfortunately, this is not going to receive much condemnation from the West given current conditions. The US doesn’t give a crap about this kind of this anymore. The EU needs Turkiye onside geopolitically… not to mention any objections from them are too easily brushed off as hypocrisy given the Romanian situation + efforts to disqualify Le Pen. It’s probably why Erdogan chose to act now after tolerating Imamoglu’s presence for the past few years.

Canada needs to redirect most of its defence spending to asymmetric warfare. You know, the same advice US consultants give to Taiwan to make a PRC occupation more expensive to contemplate. Forget about big ticket items meant to support the US in its overseas wars; start investing in mines, guerilla equipment, etc.

They have to put on a brave face, of course, but I’m not sure US intelligence is so easy to replace. The Europeans have let their systems atrophy by simply using the US offerings, especially in realtime targeting data and signals intelligence. The US has in the past encouraged this dependence, e.g. by strong-arming Europe not to develop a military grade GPS alternative.

Pokemon battle, 3v3

Alternative take: Li Ka Shing took advantage of the Trump bullshit to sell off two port operations at the top of the market, right before a global recession. CK Hutchinson’s share price went up by a fifth when this deal got announced; Blackrock is down.

It was like an episode of Veep except more obnoxious.

What plausible stick could the UK (with or without EU) wield against the US? Pull out of NATO or the Five Eyes? That would hurt them way more than it would hurt the US, and Trump knows they’re too rational to let it happen.