Russia and Ukraine flashpoint

[PDF]

Pemalite said:

PDF said:

It's one thing to find other countries to buy things from (you can build another factory somewhere else) but it's much more difficult to find new markets to sell to.

US Market is & will still be very important for many EU & Asian Companies. The tariffs will hurt US consumers and foreign MNCs, as will the retaliatory tariffs.

No one denies that the US is not an important market... But it's not an important market for many nations, no point trading with a nation that has tariffs when you can sell to another nation in higher volume without it.

The point I was trying to make is you can't "just sell to another nation". Developing new markets to sell to takes time and might not exist all together for the product you are selling. If a company can sell their goods to another country, they are likely already attempting to do so. If they aren't its likely because there is not enough of a market in the country to economically feasible. Sure, China (greatly slowed), India, & Africa, all have growing markets but it will still take decades for them to be fully realized. The impact of not selling to Americans will be immediate. Resulting in less revenue and job loss for companies. 

Relatively, buying products or changing who your import from is easier. As I said before, you can build new factories in another country or buy from a competitor. Exception to this would be raw materials, as you can't just make more raw materials. Even then, not doing business with the US will greatly impact the global prices.

Comparatively, Australis is not a huge trading partner but the EU sells twice the amount of exports to the US as it does to China. Canada & Mexico need US markets for their economy. China sells more to the US then all of the EU. You say the US is not important market for "many nations", sure that can be true but it also true that the US is the world's largest importer.

Too much of the focus on tariffs come from the consumer side, but the bigger impact is on the seller "if" they lose market share.

I say "if", because I think most americans won't stop buying foreign products, they will just pay more for them. Broadly speaking, I don't think tariffs will bring back US manufacturing nor do I think it will spur many new companies.

Just to be clear, these tariffs are stupid and will hurt everyone. It's a lose-lose situations with the argument just being over who loses more. 

Last edited by PDF - 1 day ago