3d ago

OOPS: Trump Trade War Has U.S. Automakers Looking to Move Manufacturing to China, Per WSJ

www.mediaite.com

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that U.S. automakers are seeking a workaround to avoid increased expenses resulting from President Donald Trump’s controversial tariff policy: relocating manufacturing to China.

“Four major automakers are racing to find workarounds to China’s stranglehold on rare-earth magnets, which they fear could force them to shut down some car production within weeks,” the Journal reports. “Several traditional and electric-vehicle makers—and their suppliers—are considering shifting some auto-parts manufacturing to China to avoid looming factory shutdowns, people familiar with the situation said.”

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If trumps ridiculous presidency results in even more outsourcing due specifically to his policies... when his whole thing is the exact opposite...
Chefs fucking kiss of massive failures. Time will tell I guess.
- This is on-brand. In the same style Putin's war to keep Ukraine from increasing the size of NATO with its inclusion caused traditionally neutral countries of Sweden and Finland to quickly join NATO.
  
  Not all fuckups are fascist, but all fascists are fuckups. They just can't help themselves - an authoritarian life is a a desperate life full of violence, hatred, and fear.
- I'm still of the belief that all of this is about the destruction of the US economy for Russia. He's a kremlin asset and has been for 40+ years.
  He and the billionaires (because he isn't one) will make millions from short term panic in the market, just as they have already, and vacuum up everything they can to control it all directly and openly just like the Russian oligarchs did post-Soviet control.
  This will make the US weaker both internally and internationally, where Russia can try and step in to some of the power vacuum that departure leaves behind. China as well as a side effect, as long as they can deal with the bullshit trade war in the beginning, which they can without issue honestly.
  
  Putin supported Trump with that view. I think it's wrong to view Trump as Putin's puppet. Rather, Trump is an agent chaos, and Putin hoped to use that chaos to put Russia on a better footing.
  Problem is that Russia can't do it. They've been running on the fumes of a dead superpower for over 30 years. They can't build their own fighter jets, bombers, tanks, or boats bigger than a destroyer. Not at the scale they need for such a large mass of land. They've got oil and natural gas, but everyone is finding the exits on that.
  China will step right into the void left by the collapse of Pax Americana. Putin is just handing it to them and doesn't realize it.
  
  China was facing the possibility of total collapse before the trade war, and they are more vulnerable than the US to the effects of the trade war.
  I'm not saying the US will "win" the trade war, (no nation will be better off.) but if China comes through on top it will be analogous to Vietnam, where the US has every conventional advantage but political pressure at home forces capitulation.
  Trump doesn't know what he is doing, but there is a chance he gets his way more or less just because he was handed a deck stacked wildly in his favor.

Here's something a lot of folks supporting the tariffs as some bass-ackwards way of returning manufacturing to the US don't understand: in business, uncertainty is even worse than higher costs. Even if you end up paying a little more, it's worth it if that payment gets you stability.
Trump's instability in policy easily outweighs any benefits -- and that's assuming there were ever any benefits at all.
- This is the principle of insurance, get a certain loss today, to protect you against an uncertain loss in the future.
  
  Could businesses buy "tariff insurance"? Someone else handles the risk (for a fee) and then they can focus on what they do. Like domestic metal futures or something?

I work for a company that manufactures medical equipment. We have manufacturing sites all over the world, but the vast majority is manufactured in the US. Last week it was announced that 20% of the manufacturing at my site is going to be moved to China due to the tariffs.
Lots of people in my deep red state will be losing their jobs because of this.
- Ya because the tarriffs mean that a device already sold LOSES money to fulfil. Medical devices already don't have great margins...
  
  Oh, I get it and I don't blame my employer. They are also moving some manufacturing from China to the US, however it won't be at my location... funny enough, it just so happens to be in a blue state.
  If we weren't talking about real people's lives it would be funny to see just how miserably the trump tariffs have failed.

What?! The tariffs made American businesses uncompetitive? Who could possibly have guessed?!
- No, decades of deregulation made business uncompetitive. Tariffs have fucked up the supply side economy these parasites have gorged themselves on.
- Here's something I found on the web...

it's almost like Trump has no idea what he's doing
- He doesn't, but he takes advice from trade expert Peter Navarro, who has written many books, crediting the groundbreaking work on trade and tariffs by renowned expert Ron Varo (Navarro).
  Yep, Trump's trade expert's best source for information is just making it up himself. It's all just imaginary, wishful thinking. Stupid people think they can just wish their fantasies into reality.
- Trump knows exactly what he's doing: fucking over the US like his handler tells him to, while causing wild market swings that his friends (okay, associates) can make bank off of

This is 9D CHESS that only a STRONG Businessman who Bankrupted ALL his Previous Businesses could understand!

Hey Siri, file under “well what the fuck else could a reasonable person expect”.

Those cars will cost Americans 20% more. And the American car makers will just raise their prices and keep the profits.
- There's an even worse case scenario for the USA on this. To protect the US EV market, there was a prior tariff of 100% on Chinese EVs which largely priced them out of being brought to the USA. With these reciprocal new Chinese tariffs, the increased costs could get closer or even achieve price parity with USA made EVs. So a Chinese EV could be the same price as a USA made one, but worse yet, the high import tariffs the USA would get from the US imposed EV tariff would be collected by the US government. This means that trump would actually be incentised to encourage the Chinese EV (with its massive tariff adding to government coffers) over a USA EV which gives his government nothing execpt brownie points with his base. Encouraning the Chinese EV path also screws Musk, who is currently criticized trump. We know how much trump cares about his voters, so I'm seeing trump take the Chinese EV path.
  
  Trying to apply logic to any future (let alone current) actions of this administration is an exercise in futility.

I’m sure the 50% tariffs on steel aren’t helping.
- Nah they are totally just going to spin up steel mills in no time. All steel is the same and the mills just hang out waiting to be used so bringing them back on line would be no problem!

Just more proof for you of what I already knew.
- That Trumps entire purpose was to destroy the US?
  
  it was to create a profit loop for the worlds wealthiest that contributed to his movement, while also making himself and his family even more wealthy in the process.
  destroying the US is just a bi product of that massive wealth transfer.
  also it was a sociopathic narcissist at the end of his life trying to immortalise himself for as long as possible.

It's almost like making ALL THE MATERIALS WE NEED TO NAME THINGS MORE EXPENSIVE doesn't Incentivize business to build factories here.
Steel and aluminum imports just got 50% more expensive.

This would be a political disaster for Trump as well as an economic one for the communities of workers who would ostensibly lose their jobs if such a thing were to occur.
Coming soon to !leopardsatemyface@lemmy.world

The Gig Economy will rule America! Let the strong rule. /s

American automakers would get eaten alive in China. They've got no hope of competing. Much safer to stick to Detroit.
- They already did. That's been the big problem for years. Legacy auto made their money in the largest car market on the planet. Then people in China stopped buying them.
  Just one reason why Chinese EVs are illegal in USA. Because Americans would buy them and Ford and GM would already have to have been bailed out.
- I think it's not so much about going after the China market, but about cheaper approach to going after the worldwide market (except US). Going through US means taking huge hit on import tariffs on material and the pissing contest causes a lot of retaliatory tariffs further making things rough on the way into other countries. Since it keeps on changing, impossible to realistically plan around.
  So the US market suffers as jobs exit and prices go up, but the prices were going to go up either way. The world except US is more preserved.
  Also, to the extent that they could compete with China, this certainly wouldn't hurt.

Auto parts, not whole vehicles. They need the factories in the US to keep selling in the US. If they move the factories out Trump will slap tariffs so high on them, they'd be unable to import, for the benefit of any company that's kept its factories in the US. Most if not all US autos have Chinese vehicle factories already. Doesn't change the fact that if some parts move to China, some US workers would lose their jobs and that's the opposite of what General Taco says he wants.

Intended imo
- Nah, fascists are big on protectionism, because they live in the past. His problem is the Nazis were playing a different game in a different economy and following their plays in 2025 is just fucking stupid... But he's not even following the full playbook because Randian brainrot won't let him encourage state industry, just the privatization of what little we have left.
  Next step is invading a rich neighbor with a similar culture to steal their money to pay off your deficit spending btw.

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