New Trump Tariffs Won't Include Fitness Trackers Or the Apple Watch (theverge.com) 81
According to Bloomberg, the next round of China tariffs won't include devices that receive and transmit voice data, a category that includes the Apple Watch, Fitbits, Sonos Speakers, and a host of other fitness trackers and home assistants. The Verge reports: The White House recently backed down on the rate at which the imports would be taxed. Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that listed goods would likely be taxed at only 10 percent. As recently as August, President Trump had considered setting the rate at 25 percent. Customs documents describe the category in vague terms, listing the devices as "machines for the reception, conversion and transmission or regeneration of voice, images or other data." But that vague category has come to encompass a wide range of personal tech, including fitness trackers and personal voice assistants. The Apple Watch, AirPods, HomePod, BeatsWL, AirPort, and Time Capsule all fall under the code, according to a letter submitted by Apple to the U.S. Trade Representative. Other categories of Apple products will still be affected by the tariff, including adapters, the Mac mini, and any circuit boards or internal components shipped individually to the United States.
PTL (Score:2, Insightful)
and pass the MAGA
The orange idiot rages on
Enjoy your inflation, Trumpanzees
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Here is 50 kopeyka for your AstroTurf, Ivan!
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MAGA: (Score:2, Offtopic)
Make
Apple
Great
Again
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No, nearly everyone loses the war of tariffs. This is a race to the top in how much to tax one's own citizens.
Re:Only one way to sort this out (Score:5, Informative)
China on the other hand has been negotiating and signing trade agreements with the rest of the world, while Humpty Trumpty has been tearing them up.
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Eventually the country with the stronger economy wins the war of tariffs. The US economy is quite strong now and China's is fairly weak.
Hmm, How is the US strong? Last I checked we were burning money like Donald Trump running a casino and mainlining heroin (crazy unsupported tax cuts) to keep the motor red lined.
Sure a tax cut that is deficit spending might make sense if you were in a major recession, but now?
Sooner or later there will be a contraction. Then debt will really go the rest of the way through the roof and at some point our credit is likely to get one or more downgrades, which will kick our borrowing costs higher which will ma
US is inflating (Score:3, Insightful)
"he US economy is quite strong now"
That's the $1.2-1.5 trillion borrowing for the tax cuts, it's worth about 8-10% of GDP growth which they'll probably time in the quarters before elections (i.e. you'll get another hit in Q3 2018).
"China's is fairly weak"
China has a trade surplus with most of the world, and will continue to trade with most of the world.
"They need to sell their crap to the US way more than we need to buy it"
Normally I'd agree, but Trump started trade wars with EU, NAFTA countries and USA nee
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The markets in China are up right now because they anticipate the retaliatory actions to be beneficial. Some with be tariffs on US goods, some will be non-tariff stuff like domestic stimulus packages and increased bureaucracy for US companies.
Because the US is doing the same to Europe and east Asia too this is seen as an opportunity to displace US exports to those countries as well.
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"China's is fairly weak" China has a trade surplus with most of the world, and will continue to trade with most of the world.
"They need to sell their crap to the US way more than we need to buy it"
China has a massive real-estate bubble that has been building for several years. If, when, and how that will deflate is a matter of opinion, but it is a huge bubble. Entire cities of shodilly-constructed buildings that were purchased as investment vehicles, but have always been empty kind of bubble.
Personally I think that will unwind itself somewhat slowly as individual investors just write off their junk investment properties, but if that is the case it is a tremendous amount of capital thrown down the
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Unless they caollapse first, or encounter a Dotcom bubble, or an excessive number of baby boomers, or any of a dozen other factors overwhelming the economic trend. I'm afraid that the Libertatian ideals of the "the market will decide" is often overwhelmed by more powerful, temporary forces.
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They need to sell their crap to the US way more than we need to buy it.
Oh ye of little knowledge. You think this is about cheap consumer products? You have no idea how dependent the USA has become on Chinese manufacturing. That is precisely why every USA based company is spitting chips at Trump. It is precisely why your farmers require a bail out package. The thing about countries that have dabbled in free or large economic trade is that they almost universally become dependent on it.
In other words (Score:5, Interesting)
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You got it backwards: Tax exemptions for companies willing to deliver tracking data to the NSA.
Baddly implemented IoT (Score:2)
willing to deliver tracking data to the NSA.
Probably most implementation will be so bad (rushing to slap "voice capability" on any gadget, just to avoid tariffs. - See Amazon's Alexa-enabled microwave oven to get an idea of how far this shit can go)
that the manufacturer probably won't be needed to be willing.
Merely "existing" would open them enough to hacking.
Meaning large gaping security hole for any criminal or script kiddie to attack.
Even your microwave! (Score:2)
No tariffs on any technology that can be used to spy on Americans. Hmm.... Nope, that's not suspicious at all!
yup, even more so : as all it takes to avoid tariffs is apparently to slap some voice data capability on anything.
thus you can expect tons of gadget that haphazardly add voice capabilities that barely make sense, just to skip on the tariffs.
So lots of buggy implementation in IoT devices *with mic*.
Probably even in your next microwave oven (case in point, in a related /. story, Amazon has exactly announced that !)
A paradise to happily hack into, for any three letter agencies (probably the original intent).
Or
They always like to fuck the taxpayer. (Score:3)
Re:They always like to fuck the taxpayer. (Score:5, Insightful)
Objectively you are the idiot. Or at the least delusional. Trump will not be removed or resign during his presidency. Mod me down but remember this comment when your delusional fantasy never comes true.
Good, him being impeached would do nothing other than give rise to a 'dagger in the back' legend and turn him into a martyr for the MAGA crowd. In any other democracy he would have been slapped with a no confidence vote in parliament followed by a new election but due to the nature of the US system you are stuck with him for another two years. Trump needs to be voted out of office in 2020, not just for the sake of the US but for the sake of the entire damn planet. The US is the Roman Empire of our time and we cannot afford to have an imbecile for an emperor. If, however, Trump is re-elected one can only hope that it will be healthy for the US to live through a full 8 years of his presidency as an object lesson in what it costs to indulge yourself with militant political tribalism and to vote for a president based on his entertainment value rather than his competence because that is really the only thing the bottom 90% in the USA are getting out of Trump. They are getting 'entertainment', they are being told what they want to hear while he slowly and methodically screws them over. Anybody who believes that a guy who lives in a glass tower named after himself and who shits into a gold plated toilet is 'a man of the people' and 'a friend of the little guy' is has less brains than an amoeba.
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The US is the Roman Empire of our time and we cannot afford to have an imbecile for an emperor.
Wow. Quote of the day. Well stated.
Get ready for pointless voice control (Score:2)
Products that have no reason to have voice input and output are going to include voice control features just to get around the tariffs. This kind of market distortion is the worst kind of government interference in the free market there is, where real progress is masked by pointless "progress" in a direction that is coerced by government interference. Samsung and Baidu have already developed their voice assistant technology, so this market distortion isn't even going to necessarily benefit American comp
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TDS (Score:2)
Phones? (Score:3)
Do phones fall in this category? Seems like a huge detail was left out of summary.
Re:Phones? (Score:5, Informative)
Phones are excluded along with golf clubs and plastic napkins for some reason.
What are plastic napkins?
Xmas ornaments (what about other holiday ornaments? Mardi Gras beads for example!)
Sunglasses
Bras
more...
What Would Evade $250 Billion In Trump China Tariffs? Golf Clubs, Plastic Napkins, Cell Phones, More [forbes.com]
Here's what is covered:
https://ustr.gov/sites/default... [ustr.gov]
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when you read what is excluded, it almost reads like a description of smartphones without actually saying smartphones.
NIce to know useless shit won't be affected (Score:2)
These items are worthless to me. How about we put a 100% tariff on those items and take it off for all of the useful stuff.
OT, but this is why the Dems keep losing elections (Score:2)
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This is a perfect example of working class voters voting against their own interest and getting exactly what they voted for (and deserve).
Re: Trollerific shareblue (Score:1)
Surely you jest. You do know who pays these tariffs right? It isn't Chinese? The only thing Trump has control over is raising tax on you! Which he has been doing.
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This.. I bet you the guy you responded to thinks the Chinese are the ones paying the tariffs..
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Bush Sr. didn't raise the taxes willingly, that would be the majority Democrat congress that pushed for taxes. Like they always do. They convince people that the country's economy and the national budget are the same thing. But go ahead, deflect away and act as though Bush raised taxes single-handedly. Funny how the Executive branch can't actually do that, but the legislature can.
Mac mini? (Score:2)
I find it funny/sad that they keep mentioning the Mac mini, which Apple has downgraded in 2014 and haven't updated ever since.
Apple will love the tarrifs (Score:3)
Tarriffs affecting Cell phones... don't impact Apple so much, as their product is already the most expensive.
On the other hand: the impact on Chinese eBay sellers selling competitive alternatives at super-low rates and cheaper Android phones may be enormous --- this may put them out of business (By causing a high burden to compliance.... consumers buy something on eBay from overseas, and will start suddenly finding out that your orders going to be held by customs --- that might be a 2 to 5% then you have to pay that duty plus an extra $50 or more in extra handling, processing and storage fees that were incurred when your item was found to require being held) resulting in less competition against larger retailers and manufacturers.
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A 10% tarriff on a $150 unbranded Android phone makes the phone cost $165.
A 10% tarriff on a $1,000 iPhone makes that phone cost $1,100.
That has two effects: 1) the iPhone may be pushed just out of the affordability range of some people, while that's not likely to happen for the cheap Android phone; 2) the price difference between the two increases from $850 to $935.
I don't see how this is an advantage for expensive Apple over the cheap competition. Also many shipments from eBay or Aliexpress are out of US
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I don't see how this is an advantage for expensive Apple over the cheap competition.
Probably because your scenario isn't necessarily what happens. Try :
1. A 10% ad valorem tariff on an unbranded Android phone that retails for $150 with an assessed value or cost of $130 (Before retail markup for sale to end customer) makes the phone cost $163 because of $13 in tarriffs.
2. A 10% ad valorem tariff on an iPhone that retails for $400 with an assessed value of $175 (Before retail markup for sale to
Talking washing machines? (Score:2)
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Would be a pretty accurate description of you run-of-the-mill mobile phone.