Financial markets have been roiled since President Trump imposed stiff tariffs on China, where Apple and other tech companies make many of their products.
  • xyzzy@lemm.ee
    103·
    3 days ago

    As a side note, can you imagine being an accountant and trying to keep track of the tariff declarations that are changing daily?

    • frickineh@lemmy.world
      22·
      3 days ago

      I’m pretty sure all the people who deal with imports have to be on the verge of a mental breakdown. What a nightmare. Policy made by a petty, stupid tyrant based on apparently nothing but vibes and changing as often as he shits his diaper is no way to run a country, but here we are.

    • Today@lemmy.world
      12·
      3 days ago

      A friend works for a hardscaping company - sidewalks, drainage, parking lots, etc. Every day she gets an email about price changes on equipment and materials. It’s making her crazy!

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
        3·
        3 days ago

        If everyone is noncompliant like that, Trump will have less power than the mayor of DC.

    • DerGottesknecht@feddit.org
      9·
      3 days ago

      Colleague of mine is responsible for implementing the tariffs in our quoting process, he had to spend his marriage anniversary day on this shit.

    • infectoid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      3 days ago

      I once worked on a project to calculate tariffs on goods for an importer. It was a massive job with lots of edges cases. And that was under normal conditions.

      My gut feel is that some, maybe even most of this can be worked in, but there is absolutely going to be shit going under the radar because it’s too hard, too confusing or out right contradictory.

      • admin@sh.itjust.works
        11·
        3 days ago

        I’ve exported computer parts before and you’d be surprised that the way to declare them is not: “gaming PC” or “Macbook air 13"” in the customs form but more like “Data processing machines” and if you were to ship a motherboard, it has to be declared as “Data Processing Machine Parts” or whatever it is, with a totally different code and classification, same thing for memory devices, for CPUs and even for storage devices.

        So yeah, I have a feeling they won’t even bother covering all the angles and just allow assembled computers, phones (since the US made iPhone is impossible at this point) and “chips” whatever they decide classifies as a chip.

      • futatorius@lemm.ee
        1·
        3 days ago

        When rules become too complex, everything becomes a negotiation, and subject to selective enforcement. That may be by design.

    • lemmysquezzy@lemmy.world
      6·
      3 days ago

      It’s been hell since the start of February. Reporting from the front lines. I’ve got folks working 16 hour days right now to keep supply chains moving.

  • The_Caretaker@lemm.eeEnglish
    3·
    2 days ago

    Meanwhile China has restricted the export of many of the raw materials used to make computers, phones and chips. Someone is getting spanked and it isn’t China. Trump should be wearing a collar with a Chinese flag on it, maybe a yoke too.

  • dhork@lemmy.worldEnglish
    671·
    3 days ago

    Basically, a lot of the important shit that the CEOs of companies who contributed to his campaign depend on. So, he is caving, but only for his big donors.

    I hope China doesn’t back down, though, and keep their counter-tariffs in place until all our dumb tariffs are taken away. Bullies only understand force.

      • eldavi@lemmy.mlEnglish
        91·
        3 days ago

        these electronics are literally made in china; it would be hard to image that they won’t take some sort of action.

  • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
    34·
    3 days ago

    I wonder if you can eat cellphones or inject computer chips instead of insulin…

    What good is cheap(er) tech when you can’t afford drugs and groceries?

    Ah yes, I forgot… His tech bro backers are probably behind this.

  • imposedsensation@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    123·
    3 days ago

    This is beyond retarded and virtually incoherent. If we were really going to onshore manufacturing, this is literally the ONLY manufacturing that makes sense for Americans to do. We’re not going to be building widgets and fucking lawn decorations and other bullshit in this country. What a moron.

    • futatorius@lemm.ee
      2·
      3 days ago

      That didn’t originally mean Brave New World totalitarianism by distraction, it meant doing things the common people wanted and needed. Juvenal was an elitist and thought that the state should serve the ruling class and nobody else. So no relief from hunger, and no public ceremonies or events that the Great Unwashed could participate in.

  • BigMacHole@lemm.ee
    11·
    3 days ago

    Thank YOU Trump for Allowing these Exemptions!

    -Americans who Thanked Trump for the TOTAL Tariffs just a Couple Days ago!

  • FartsWithAnAccent@fedia.io
    6·
    3 days ago

    Prices are still going up and companies are pocketing the difference with even more price gouging. Nobody seems to be stopping them either. Never mind the reciprocal tariffs that got added on top of everything else by other countries.

  • Mossheart@lemmy.ca
    71·
    3 days ago

    Cool, but the prices that were raised because of tariffs won’t go down so quickly. It’ll just go into the pocket of the corps.