USA News and Poland - part 14

Elon Musk has split with Donald Trump on tariffs in the latest sign the billionaire is distancing himself from the White House.

The president's special adviser told a political rally he hopes to see a 'zero tariff situation' between the US and Europe to create a free trade zone.

No!

Trump's tariffs are not to make world trade fair. Their purpose is to bring US manufacturing back home.

Even if all tariffs are gone, a US factory worker will never be able to compete with one in Mexico or China.

This short video is for concern faking, Trump's tariffs are oh so bad for America, PF morons...



Before I go...fvck you, Euro parasites...

LoL!

I really don't understand why you appear to be obsessed with Paulina.

The fact is that the US has an obesity crisis. In general, Americans eat too much convenience/fast food and in large portions. They drive everywhere and don't do enough physical exercise. That does not make for a healthy nation.


Paulina has spoken about the fact that she has Hashimoto's disease on this forum. Please tell me how that makes her a hypochondriac? My opinion is that she looks after herself and pays attention to her health, just as many other people do. She likely is far healthier than the average American :)

Not only in the US.....it's happening in the whole West.....we human consumers have become the "chickens in cages". Unceasingly fed by an industry which got rich on producing addictive, fattening foods....with lotsa ads for the few eating breaks.

It's high time people understand that!

To only blame the "chickens" won't help.....as with most addicted without any outside help they are unable to break that cycle. But the first step is to recognize whats happening. The food industry left alone won't stop the money flow on their own, after all they got rich on it....fact!

Yes, and it was diagnosed by an endocrinologist based on blood tests and thyroid ultrasound, of course :)


Ptak has a propensity for making up false accusations against people he doesn't like :)


Yes, and because I got to know much about these things since my health problems started, I'm also looking out for my family's health. Thanks to me my mother found out that she has thyroid problems too and in the end she was also diagnosed with Hashimoto's disease.


I don't know about healthier, but I'm definitely slimmer ;)

And not only in the West, but it does seem to be the worse in the US.


Yes, exactly, that was my point.


Yup.


Of course. That's why we need laws and regulations to keep them in check.

True....I guess that is because they have less regulations there generally, also about food stuff.....which is interesting, then on the other hand to be slim is also a real thing there!

The market is still down, and I am buying all I can. European leaders are scrambling to try to find a plan. The UK is just now realizing that Jaguar and Land Rover are in deep trouble without the US market and could lose 10K jobs in one city alone. Italy understands that the EU needs to do a deal, or countries will start doing their own deals and seek exemptions from Trump EU tariffs. If that happens, the EU couold potentially fall apart as an economic block. Macron is a bumbling idiot making threats about tariffs, and everyone I have spoken to while in the US the last few days is laughing about how everyone else is freaking out.

Maybe the EU should consider making trade with the US a zero tariff each way? Maybe the EU should stop changing emmissions and other auto standards each year so the US can actually do business or at least try to on an equal footing with EU companies? I think its great seeing all these world leaders reacting now, when Trump was saying this was coming a year ago. The EU could have saved Kamala by doing a deal with the Biden admin proactively during the campaign, but they didnt. The EU thought it could continue its unfair trade policies and get away with it. Looks like abig mistake now.

The EU could hurt the US tech giants probably the most (with slapping extra tariffs on X and co).....hence (most probably) the new discord between Trump and former best buddy Musk....could be interesting to watch what unfolds from there!

edition.cnn.com/2025/04/05/business/musk-tariffs-us-europe/index.html

fortune.com/2025/04/05/eu-retaliation-trump-tariffs-data-use-by-big-tech-environmental-regulation/

..."It is not a question of taxing all American imports, that would be counterproductive, penalizing our economy as much as theirs," he told the newspaper. "So we are going to target certain industrial segments, in a precise manner."....

So....rather not a broad Trump-like hammer but rather only a few surgical exact fine but deep cuts!

Stop your wet dreams, I really doubt something like this would happen because of US tariffs :)


Maybe everything doesn't revolve around the US and accommodating the US business? 🤨

@Bratwurst Boy
A tax on X? Interesting concept. X is nowhere near as popular in Europe as Facebook is. I dont see how the EU could even tax X or Facebook because the platforms are free to use. Unless you are paying for advertising, which companies already pay taxes on. Eliminating X or taxing social media will only limit EU companies ability to target market their own products to Europeans who use those platforms. But, if there was a scheme that made it possible and damaging, you would see US companies leave the EU, and in particular Poland. Poland has a lot at stake due to low labor costs, and the economy cannot afford to lose US business.

Again, what is wrong with equal tariffs across the board? The EU is every bit, if not more protectionist in their trade policy than the US. Fair is fair, and let the consumer decide on what products are the best value for them. I am laughing watching BBC news this morning. I spoke with friends who import tens of millions of items from China and Mexico, and all orders have been cancelled until this is resolved. That doesnt hurt Americans buying those products, it hurts the manufactures in the other countries. If this goes on for another 90 days, some countries will break with the EU, and it might not take that long.

@Paulina
The US accounts for 25% of all trade in the world, and more than 30% of trade in Europe. Lose the US, and Europe goes into a depression.

That are only my words....don't quote me, I'm not an expert on USian "big tech", but I guess that is exactly what the EU is right now thinking and planning about!


Frankly I (and most) will agree with you here....and if there is truly something unfair happening I guess that will be rectified and end right now....so that Trumps doing has some good coming out of it....but I doubt that a bit, that is.

If it would be only about fairness....and equal tariffs....that would end here, but it won't. That is the beginning of a trade war!

Lotsa factual infos about those "unfair" tariffs....

euronews.com/my-europe/2025/04/03/fact-check-are-donald-trumps-tariffs-on-the-eu-really-reciprocal

I read the article, it presents the EU side of things, and not the US side. This is the problem with most news outlets, they are not giving real balanced reporting. Cars have different tariffs, and EU restrictions keep changing to keep the US out. This is just a fact. Cadillac sedans would do very well in Europe, but they are locked out due to ever changing standards. Imagine Camaro's, Chargers, Challengers, Corvett's that many Europeans love being able to be purchased in Europe with lower prices? Mustang's anyone?

It is simple. Exacty the same tariffs and exactly the same taxes at purchase level the field. The consumer will determine the best selling products. That usually leads to lower and better price competition.

Yeah....quite interesting, isn't it! I found that info quite helpful:


...The EU rate for cars at 10% is above the U.S. duty of 2.5%, but the United States imposes 25% duty on imported pick-up trucks, the largest segment of the U.S. auto market....

So...what now? What do we do with that info?

Or that:

....Trump is incandescent about the EU's massive trade surplus. It sells far more goods than it buys from the US. The surplus for 2024 was around $200bn (€180bn; $153bn).

It's the other way round when it comes to services - the US sells far more to the EU than the other way round. That is why the EU thinks its main retaliatory leverage against the US would lie in services, like banks and big tech.....

bbc.com/news/articles/c24q5jqyle0o

Reading BOTH sides gives a quite differentiated picture....just not that Evil-EU and poor Victim-US that Trump so likes! It worked for both of us, thats why nobody really complained for all these decades....till now!

Are they equipped with manual gearboxes for the European market?

In all honestly, all things considered, I think it's high time for the EU to develop their own social media. And ideally a world-wide equivalent of Google maybe financed and run by the UN. American big tech has become too powerful and monopolist to the point of this being dangerous for even the political stability in other countries and the independence of news outlets.
I'm serious here.
RuSSians were smart to develop their equivalent of Google (Yandex) and Facebook (VKontakte), I have to give them that now.


Not true, it presents both sides, imho. Besides, Trump has been talking only about the US side of things (and he's been lying and manipulating at that), so there must be some response about the EU side too.


Out of curiosity - what US businesses employ Polish workers in Poland?


I have no doubt that the US is an important market for the EU, but you're talking about changing emmissions and other auto standards that apply to all cars sold in the EU, including European ones. They don't only apply to American cars, right?

Of US investors in Poland I guess Amazon is the biggest in teems of employment.

Would be surprised if there were many other American businesses in the Top 100 Polish employers - maybe Masterfoods, Starbucks, General Mills and a couple of Shared Service Centres.

Thing is....they exist already....but many people just don't trust them!

You can say about Twitter....X and Musk what you want, but you are not in danger to get controlled or canceled because of the actual gov in a european country. For us rightists/conservative are the rather leftists european alternatives not really alternatives....we just don't trust them! *shrugs*

For example german leftists and greens HATE X (and Musk now too)....so many left and gathered on platforms like Mastodon or such to keep out/down those of other opinions.....you won't find me there ever, but that's how I envision an EU-only social media.....😱

What's the point, Trump renegotiated NAFTA then Trump ripped it up. The US helped establish the WTO and has ignored it. The US breaks international treaties/agreements.

Regulation of services is coming, why for instance should Californian law govern advertising platforms globally? Zero tariffs is a nonsense it's a rush to the bottom by removing very sensible standards. The animal welfare standards discussed previously are a point in case. If you are going to eat animals the minimum requirement should be to give them as decent a life as possible. Want to sell dangerous electrical appliances remove standards and tariffs, remove safety features from vehicles for a level playing field. The mad proposal would quickly result in a flood of legal cases and endless negotiations over exactly how low standards should be and how to tax them. The proposal is a surrender to billionaires and their US government.

Yeah, that's what I'm wondering about... Let us take those car tariffs. The US could make them equal long time ago, so why didn't they? I'm definitely no economy expert, so that's just a guesswork of an ordinary person - higher tariffs result in higher prices of products, right? So, I'm guessing the US society needed a lot of cheap or cheaper cars. Maybe because the domestic car industry in the US wasn't able to produce enough cars on its own for the US market and/or they were more expensive?

Now, let us assume that foreign car companies will move their factories to the US. Will there be enough Americans willing to work in those factories? Or will they need immigrants from poorer countries for this?

Let us assume that those factories will raise their wages to attract Americans to work for them - that will most likely also result in higher prices of cars produced in those factories, right? Will American consumers be OK with buying more expensive cars? Or will they start buying less cars? Especially that all kinds of other stuff will probably become more pricey due to tariffs? 🤔


What are you talking about? All kinds of cheap stuff are made in China - from T-shirts to furniture. Even more expensive and high-quality stuff - even if it's a non-Chinese brand - for example, Wacom (a Japanese brand) moved a lot of its production to China.


To be honest, the only things that I'm aware of as far as American business in Poland is concerned are fast foods and a bit of big tech.

I guess in this regard Trump has bad advisors, or if not he doesn't listen to them....

I also wonder since he was a quite successful entrepreneur himself, but only nationally, in the US....maybe that becomes a problem right now. For him global trade seems to be an easy math....in's and out's, imports and exports, have to be in balance or it is crooked, somehow wrong!

@Bratwurst Boy
As I asked before. Please point out an EU pickup that is comperable? I know of zero pickups made in the EU that would be competition.

@Ironside
Actually yes, they can be. My uncle bought a standard transmission CTS, not sure why.

@Paulina
Amazon, Intel, UPS, are three I would name. Your claims of lies from Trump are wasted and unfounded. If the tariffs are no big deal for the EU, why is the EU crying so loudly? If the cheap stuff from China is no longer ordered for import into the US it only effects China. Simple. If there is no demand, supply is not needed.

@Barney
I agree Trump wasted his first term being controlled by career politicians. NAFTA is a disaster. Now, he has nothing to lose, so he can break all the deals, and renegotiate. Is it nice? No. Its simply long over due. The lobby from European auto manufactures, and Japanese companies has controlled things in Washington. Watch the kickbacks to congressmen and senators dry up.

Could you name them? I don't think I've ever heard of them o_O


Yes, on X you're only in danger to get controlled or canceled because of the actual current American government in the US :)))


Facebook was considered "leftist" by rightwingers too until recently, from I understand. But better "leftist" European social media than being totally dependent on American social media - because no matter of their initial political orientation American social media and the American big tech in general has clearly become very servile towards the American government nowadays.


I don't know about that - he went bankrupt a few times o_O

Interesting question, of course I had to google that! :)

Now look what I found:

....Back in the 1960s, for example, the U.S. was unhappy with a German tax on imported chicken, so in retaliation, policymakers imposed a 25% tariff on all imported pickup trucks.

That pickup truck tariff is still in place more than 50 years later. Until this week, it was ten times the tax on imported cars.

As a result, domestic carmakers have focused on building big pickup trucks that don't face foreign competition, while largely ignoring the more hotly contested market for sedans.....

npr.org/2025/04/02/nx-s1-5348033/us-economy-tariffs-trump

It was about CHICKENS, 🤪 not really about the production of pickups!

...."The distortion that has been created by this 25% tariff on light trucks is that the U.S. auto industry doesn't want to produce smaller, cheaper cars."

Businesses that benefit from protectionist policies often have less incentive to invest, invent and compete on the world stage. While building big pickup trucks has been very profitable for U.S. automakers here at home, there's not much market for those vehicles elsewhere around the world.....

Why the higher tariff then? :)


There are no factories of Intel in Poland. One was planned but due to the company's financial problems it won't be built for the time being and apparently there's no telling if it's going to happen in the future.
UPS and Amazon are service based and they need our market too.


Where did I say that tariffs are no big deal?


No, PolAm, if ordinary people won't be able to buy cheap stuff from China it will also affect American consumers, because they will have to buy more expensive things. They will be able to afford less and so they will buy less.

Apropos "Chicken-Tax"....that even got a Wiki-article....seems to have been quite a thing back then:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax

The Chicken Tax is a 25 percent tariff on light trucks (and originally on potato starch, dextrin, and brandy) imposed in 1964 by the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson in response to tariffs placed by France and West Germany on importation of U.S. chicken.[1] The period from 1961 to 1964[2] of tensions and negotiations surrounding the issue was known as the "Chicken War", taking place at the height of Cold War politics.[3]

Eventually, the tariffs on potato starch, dextrin, and brandy were lifted,[4] but since 1964 this form of protectionism has remained in place to give US domestic automakers an advantage over imported competitors.[5] Though concern remains about its repeal,[6][7] a 2003 Cato Institute study called the tariff "a policy in search of a rationale."[4] .....

Very interesting...."Chicken-War", heh:) So....Trump is not really the first trying his hand in this...

Not good enough since it does not add jobs to the US.

EU has its "Mexico" aka Albania, for example...

Americans should simply stop buying Euro junk that lasts 50k miles - starting with Jags and Rovers.

Because American tariffs, compared to those Europeans, were low, and combined with artificial, discriminatory, capricious regulations, are strangling American businesses, Take for instance Aliens, complain: American eggs are washed and therefore not fit for consumption by the European standards, some chicken sh*t
must be included and a myriad of other utterly stupid restrictions. Hence, Paulina tariffs are only part of the equation. Your regulatory trade barriers,are the real monsters. Don't get hung up on tariffs too much because you lose the ability to see the bigger picture.