this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Trump might claim China tariff victory – but this is Capitulation Day (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 weeks ago by SLVRDRGN@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world
36 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Donald Trump will inevitably claim Monday’s temporary truce in the US-China trade war as a victory, but financial markets seem to have read it for what it is – a capitulation.

Stocks were up and bond yields were higher after the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s early morning press conference in Geneva, where he has been holding talks with China.
As with the UK “trade deal” last week, the US is not reverting to the status quo before Trump arrived in the White House.

Instead, tariffs on Chinese goods will be cut from 145% to 30% – initially for a 90-day period. In return, China has cut its own tariffs on US imports to 10%, from the 125% it had imposed in retaliation against the White House.

That still marks a big shift in the terms of trade between the two countries since before Trump came to power, but falls far short of what was in effect a trade embargo.

Instead, the statement hailed “the importance of a sustainable, long-term and mutually beneficial economic and trade relationship”. The language was rather different to Trump’s Liberation Day speech, about the US being “looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far”.

In other words, the president has caved. He may have been swayed by market wobbles but it seems more plausible that dire warnings from retailers about empty shelves – backed up by data showing shipments into US ports collapsing – may have strengthened the hands of trade moderates in the administration.

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[–] Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Anyone else impressed with how little effort that Trump's opposition puts into letting others know about this stuff. I don't think the left goes beyond reading the headline and saying hmmm. Like between the right and the left, the difference is the right participates, they read the textbook and complete the assignment. The left read the textbook and don't even realize there are assignments for them to participate. Passive viewers.

I can sure as fuck tell you that my local bridge in Canada still has people on it that make new banners daily to remind people that bill gates is evil or that the NGO is trying to steal their kids. Just insane shit they work everyday to keep in people's view.

One of the funniest and scariest thing about Canada right now is how the left here just won a victory. Lots of cheering but no self awareness how that happened. The liberals won because the actions of Trump. It had nothing to do with anything anyone on the left did. That's messed up and we're going to lose next election guaranteed if nothing changes.

The left are handed so many golden eggs daily and nobody is harvesting them. Trump's accepting a plane FFS. I think it's like Sam Seder and I bet the Republicans already know how to get us to chew him up for next election.

Also don't give me this shit about how there's no point to do anything. That's just an excuse for incompetence. The better discussion is why we're incompetent

[–] AidsKitty@lemmy.world 3 points 3 weeks ago

No trade deal has been made. Really no point in claiming victory, loss, or capitulation until details of an actual deal are known.

[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 7 points 3 weeks ago

Tl;dr: Trump is all talk (mostly lies) and no backbone.

[–] falynns@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

Another failure to add to Trump's extensive list.

[–] Critical_Thinker@lemm.ee 45 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

it's 90 days. Nothing is permanent, guaranteed or stable.

Everything he does is 90 days, 4 years or some other thing that can easily be reversed by an individual later.

[–] wewbull@feddit.uk 15 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Considering he's barely been in 100 days, 90 days is forever.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 3 points 3 weeks ago

And each year has 365 days and a quarter. So its possible that tomorrow he goes totally bat shit nuts. Regardless, order now do you get your shit before the next predicted date of crazy.

[–] 1984@lemmy.today 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

He can reverse it after the next round of golf. This is Trump.

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 weeks ago

Or it could go down to 10% who knows? Who the hell wants to make big business decisions and investments in this environment.

[–] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 44 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

China said they wouldn't negotiate until tariffs came down. They didn't, now tariffs are paused, and negotiations are starting. China is clearly in the driver's seat and they just shoved trump's binky in his mouth.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

China's not negotiating. This is the best result for China. As long as USA is going to continually be belligerent with tariffs to all nations, China actually would not benefit with preferential treatment.

China wants to let the tariffs slowly but persistently eat away at USA's economy. 30% is just about right as Mexico and Canada are at 25%. China doesn't need to be the cheapest, just affordable enough that Americans will still buy. So while trade will decrease it won't stop. This gives China the breathing room they need to build up supply chains everywhere else. All the while Americans will afford less and less as tariffs eat away at their income. This will lead to less business creation activity and destroy manufacturing as the manufacturing inputs being tariffed makes USA products unaffordable.

If this looks like China is capitulating, all the better. Though most people realize it's Trump that blinked. Since their counter actions aren't really tariffs to begin with. China can order their companies who they buy from and more importantly who they don't.

[–] overload@sopuli.xyz 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I think there's also the impact that the US Treasury is going to be pulling in a hell of a lot of money for these Tariffs, which will bankroll the mass deportation that he seems to want to really get going on.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

So that's the dumbest thing Trump is doing. Deporting low income workers when he's trying to bring low income work back to America. It's literally the opposite of what you would want to do. Yet here we are. The stupidity I feel is the most stunning thing about all this. I knew Trump was insane, but completely idiotic was not something I thought was part of the deal.

[–] Yermaw@lemm.ee 1 points 3 weeks ago

Deporting low income workers

It's cause dey tuk ur juurrrrbs

[–] baldingpudenda@lemmy.world 4 points 3 weeks ago

The problem is he somehow found even dumber assholes to surround himself with than his first term and that was a high bar.

[–] gonzo-rand19@moist.catsweat.com 3 points 3 weeks ago

He FA'd and now he's FO-ing. Lol.

[–] Ton@lemmy.world 30 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Still, the shelves will be empty during the summer and who knows also prior to the holidays.

[–] tisktisk@piefed.social 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

So I saw the empty ports, but what makes you so sure we'll have empty shelves sometime this season?

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago

It takes at least a month to ship things from China to the US. I've got a post in my history going over the math.

If the ports are empty now, that means ships stopped sailing a month ago. If they sail today, they'll be here mid to late June. If none have sailed in-between, it's going to be a while before any do. And I'm not sure any ships will be sailing soon because no deals have been reached.

Lots of companies bought extra supply in the months leading up to Lie-beration Day, so they can hold for a bit. The only question is how long will they, compared to how long Chinese shipping will resume?

[–] yesman@lemmy.world 16 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

This was supposed to be the work of a master negotiator, not a "will they or won't they" from a shitty sitcom.

[–] thejml@lemm.ee 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

We don’t even get the laugh track!

[–] Linktank@lemmy.today 4 points 3 weeks ago

Pretty sure the rest of the world is laughing.

[–] CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 128 points 3 weeks ago (5 children)

So basically, he shot himself directly in the foot, puts a bandage on the foot, and declares the bandage as a victory. And for some reason the stock market cheers for this.🙄

[–] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago

This sure has exposed the relevancy (or lack thereof) of the stock market and how it can be easily manipulated by those without honour. What exactly is value?

[–] Jhex@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago

The stock market is celebrating Trump finally forgot the gun in the toilet and won't be shooting it anymore (with any luck)

This is 100% capitulation day for the USA

[–] Montreal_Metro@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 weeks ago

Stable genius. Ahahahahahahahahaha

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 32 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

And for some reason the stock market cheers for this.🙄

Bandage is better than no bandage. But I agree 30% is still pretty bad, and will still undermine US competitiveness in export markets.
But the real harm to US economy is that EU has decided to look at taxing services from USA. Which is completely new for EU.
As it were before Trump started this, the average tariff paid in EU on all imports from USA were a measly 1%!! How Trump got that to be unfair IDK?
USA has a deficit in goods to EU, but a huge surplus in services. And the services are way more profitable. So good going there Donnie.

[–] Joncash2@lemmy.ml 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

You mean a product that has no shipping costs can be replicated infinitely for free and maintains high paying jobs is worth more than sweat shop factories? Say it ain't so. Obviously we want to give up on YouTube and MS office etc... So we can put tiny screws into iPhones.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Trump is so stupid, he has basically made it a necessity to abandon MS office in public services in EU. And of course also American cloud services.
So these will definitely lose sales in EU even without tariffs, because USA is no longer a trusted partner.
Programs are also started with the purpose to make it easier to switch away from these American services. Which can help private organisations too.

[–] Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works 43 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Meanwhile all his disgusting buddies made millions from stock market manipulation and Fox news will spin this as the biggest deal of the history. Lol americans have truly embraced 1984 style brainwashing.

[–] RangerJosey@lemmy.ml 30 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)