Posted on 12/03/2019 6:45:54 AM PST by Zhang Fei
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced on Monday that it is considering tariffs as high as 100% on up to $2.4 billion worth of French products, following an investigation that concluded France's digital tax "discriminates against U.S. digital companies, such as Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon."
Why it matters: The proposal underscores the administration's willingness to expand the scope of President Trump's trade war beyond just China and use tariffs as a weapon to retaliate against other countries. It was announced around the same time that Trump landed in London for a NATO summit, where he will come face to face with French President Emmanuel Macron.
The list of products that could be targeted includes sparkling wine, French cheese, handbags and more.
(Excerpt) Read more at axios.com ...
and yet no gratitude from Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc...
“sparkling wine, French cheese, handbags “
in other words, luxury goods that generally only the wealthy care about ... so those wealthy who obsess over French labels will pay a bit more, while the workers and factory owners in France who make that stuff will suffer ... if the French retaliate, then we’ll retaliate as well, and since the U.S. economy dwarfs the French economy, guess who the ultimate winner will be ...
Axios is Comcast
I love the way Trump negotiates.
“We are in an age where western civilization is simply to big and intertwined - like a large company - to ever consider something as risky as all-out war, with bombs and stuff.”
Haha, they said the exact same thing in 1914.
LG is South Korean, not French
Oh, don’t get me wrong. In fact I had actually forgotten to add this caveat:
A shooting war will happen, but when it does, it will be epic. If modern countries, with modern arms, enter a “no holds barred, fighting for your life” war, it will be of biblical apocalypse proportions.
In fact, I think it is referenced more than once in the bible.
Good, let them purchase Epstein's old island and they can live there merrily.
“We have plenty of cheese (Joe keeps cutting it) whine (leftards keep making more), and old bags (especially in the halls of Congress) right here is the USA. “
You are correct.
France’s Muslim population is the highest of any country in the EU at 8-9% — and growing.
If stuff is grown/manufactured there, it is now most likely done by Muslim hands — as they comprise much of the cheap labor force of France.
Trump’s tariffs will hurt the Muzzies in France and will likely cause problems for Macron from the dark, evil underbelly of their society.
Good luck, Macron, you socialist fool!
Well said Mortamer...
The man is amazing. He’s like a robot. Nothing phases him. Any other American president would go along with things, and let us tax payer suckers pay the bill.
Is French ‘whine’ on that list?
re: “Oh no! You mean to tell me I can no longer purchase those POS LG appliances?”
How do you confuse France for South Korea?
Per wiki: LG Corporation, formerly Lucky-Goldstar, is a South Korean multinational conglomerate corporation. It is the fourth-largest chaebol in South Korea. It is headquartered in the LG Twin Towers building in Yeouido-dong, Yeongdeungpo District, Seoul. LG makes electronics, chemicals, and telecom products and operates subsidiaries such as LG Electronics, Zenith, LG Display, LG Uplus, LG Innotek and LG Chem in over 80 countries.
I suppose I am one who is guilty of this offense, or so I learned from North Mountain here on FR. I would appreciate knowing what is the proper term for that vast group of people, in government, and in industry, who want to "increase defense spending" without ever defending anything.
I accept your very strong point that defense is constitutional, and certainly the trillions that the government throws around should be wasted on the military before it is wasted on anything else.
Easy. I have owned a number of LG appliances, each of which were returned to the retailer due to ongoing defects. I, at that time, was fully aware of the origin of the manufacturer as being KOR. My error.
Make that a 200% tariff.
I can only provide my own experience in reply. Early in my military career, I was a 'tip of the spear' guy, flying off carriers and dropping ordinance on targets located by all sorts of intel gathering systems and sources. As a tip of the spear guy, I didnt always know or care where that targeting came from, but I wanted it to be good, just like I wanted my weapons systems to be top notch.
Later (post Gulf War 1) I moved over into the military acquisition side of those systems, and after retiring from the military, to the contractor side.
In all those years, going on four decades now, all the people I worked with or for were focused on mission success, having the best weapon system and the best intel to provide the highest probability of finding the bad guy, killing the bad guy, and returning home safely to family.
So I heard the stories about the $100 hammers and the $1000 toilet seats, but as bad a public relations scandal those may have been, they were exceptions, not rule, and the application of ethics rules goes at least as far back as my full career does.
You can always find bad apples, and clearly today, at the political level, its a problem, but I just have never run into folks trying to scam the system, and since I run into so many in the system, I have to infer its not that vast a group, percentage wise anyway. But where they exist, you could call them crooks, or worse, since there is an element who are working for our enemies and our downfall.
A friend of mine was in procurement at Robins AFB, a civil servant. He was in on the $10,000 coffee pot. It was actually for high altitude long range planes, so they could have some hot Joe as they cruised miles above us. At least that’s how I understood it. Makes perfect sense to me.
Thanks for your comment and I appreciate correction. I think you are right and my beef is with the politicians and the high command, and especially with those who set ROE that prevent us from fighting and winning.
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