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  • If you've taken a nap at any point in the last couple of months, there's a good chance you've missed at least one US threat to impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of US imports.

  • Tariffs are a a beautiful thing.

  • It's a beautiful word.

  • We're gonna put tariffs on them.

  • Those tariffs were ready to go on Monday morning.

  • We always have the option to raise it another $300 billion.

  • As part of the President's efforts to rewrite the global rules of trade and rebalance our trading relationships, he's imposed tariffs on almost every country in the world over the past year and a half.

  • That includes our biggest trading partners, China, Canada, Mexico, and Europe.

  • Recently, a lot has been happening.

  • We're going to try to bring you up to speed.

  • So let's start with our biggest trading partner, China.

  • The US imported about $540 billion of goods from China last year and exported about $120 billion, making it the biggest trading relationship of any two countries in the world.

  • One of President Trump's big goals is to balance this relationship out.

  • Last summer, he slapped 25% tariffs on goods like machinery, commodities, semi-conductors, and plastics.

  • China retaliated, mostly on vehicles and agricultural products, especially soy-beans.

  • The US hit back in the fall.

  • This time, with 10% tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of products, furniture, handbags, luggage, and many computer and auto parts.

  • China once again retaliated.

  • In December, the US and China called a truce but it didn't last.

  • The talks broke down in May, and the US moved forward with plans to raise those 10% tariffs to 25%.

  • China retaliated, and then the US threatened to impose tariffs on everything else that comes in from China, an additional $300 billion of goods.

  • So where do things stand now?

  • President Trump and China's President, Xi Jinping, held a summit on June 29th where they reached a truce for now.

  • We're going to work with China on where we left off to see if we can make a deal.

  • The US will hold off on its final round of tariffs but all the original rounds of tariffs will still remain and if they can't get a deal, it's likely we'll be talking about tariffs again soon.

  • But the trade tensions haven't just been with China.

  • Canada and Mexico have also been in the US crosshairs.

  • I have long contended that NAFTA was perhaps the worst trade deal ever made.

  • About $600 billion a year worth of trade flows between Canada and between Mexico and the United States each year.

  • One of President Trump's big campaign goals was to rewrite the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

  • The talks started in 2017.

  • But last year, when they weren't making progress quickly enough, President Trump imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from everyone in the the world, including Mexico and Canada.

  • And to further up the pressure, he threatened tariffs on the entire global automobile industry, about $372 billion worth of imports.

  • Last summer, the three countries finally reached a new deal.

  • The US-Mexico-Canada agreement.

  • Called USMCA, sort of just works, MCA.

  • But the deal doesn't go into effect until all three countries have ratified it.

  • So far, only Mexico has done so.

  • To ease the road to getting it passed, the US did two things.

  • First, it dropped the threat of auto tariffs against Canada and Mexico.

  • And second, in May, it finally removed the tariffs against steel and aluminum, and Mexico and Canada removed their tariffs, too.

  • But then, things got complicated.

  • Mexico shouldn't allow millions of people to try and enter our country, and they can stop it very quickly.

  • And I think they will.

  • President Trump, citing too many migrants are arriving at the US-Mexico border, threatened tariffs on everything the US imports from Mexico, about $350 billion a year of goods.

  • Those tariffs go from 5%, to 10%, to 15%, to 20%, and then to 25%.

  • Mexico rushed to delegation to DC, pledged to do more at its own souther border to stop the flow of migrants and avoided the threat of tariffs for now.

  • But President Trump has made it clear that the threat remains and will be revisited within 90 days.

  • But when it comes to trading relationships, there's an even bigger one that's still unsettled.

  • We're talking about Europe.

  • If you look at the European Union, it's very solidly against us in terms of trade.

  • The European Union sets trade policies for all its member countries.

  • So collectively, the US imports about $500 billion a year of goods from the EU and exports about $320 billion, making US- EU trade the biggest trading relationship in the world.

  • Remember those steel and aluminum tariffs?

  • Yeah, they still apply to Europe, and there's a couple big threats still hanging out there.

  • First, autos.

  • They send the Mercedes.

  • They send BMWs.

  • They send everything.

  • We tax them practically nothing.

  • We can't send our cars.

  • The US imports a lot of cars from Europe.

  • For now, the Trump administration has postponed the threat of auto tariffs until November, but not removed it.

  • There's also a threat of tariffs because of a long running dispute between Airbus and Boeing.

  • The EU and US have each threatened $11 billion of tariffs because of this.

  • Negotiators here aren't making any progress and the Europeans are getting worried.

  • President Trump has already shown he's willing to threaten tariffs against everything the US imports from China and everything the US imports from Mexico.

  • Put it all together and there's over $2.5 trillion of trade hanging in the balance.

  • So far, the Trump Administration hasn't gotten any major trade deals across the line and so the worry is that they could keep adding tariffs.

  • A billion dollars here and a billion dollars there and pretty soon, you're talking about real money.

If you've taken a nap at any point in the last couple of months, there's a good chance you've missed at least one US threat to impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of US imports.

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