Trump's Tariffs & Trade Wars

Says China? Is this the same China that creates ghost cities to prop up their GDP?

There are two issues with this statement. One, what percentage of Chinese construction is ghost cities that won't ever be occupied, and two, is the practice still being done. Funding for housing projects in China has been throttled early this decade.

Ironically, the effect of overbuilding on the economy is to depress the GDP, by pulling down housing prices and rents, while the GDPs of F.I.R.E.-based economies like Canada, Australia or the US are greatly inflated by artificially-high housing prices, and by their use of imputed rents in GDP calculations, which China doesn't.

 
Canada Mark Carney visits China to arrange a strategic partnership between the 2 nations.
Mark recognizes the new world order.

China cuts tariffs on Canadian rapeseed to 15% and suspends duties on canola, lobster and other products.
Canada to import 49,000 Chinese EVs at a 6% tariff down from 100%
Allows Visa-Free to China for Canadians.









 
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The India-USA interim trade deal has finally been concluded, first step. Tariffs on Indian products are decreased from 50 to 18 percent, India will agree to halt Russian oil imports and switch to US oil. India is also committed to buying 500 bn USD of US products in the next 5 years, additional clauses mention a 20 bn USD defence deal. These are just some of the details.



 
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Bessent submits. I tried to warn you guys last year.

From @Rnaudbertrand.
Really quite extraordinary how humbled Bessent has been by China.

Reminder that this is the same guy who
- At the beginning of Trump 2.0 tariffs, when China retaliated, said that China made "a big mistake... they have a losing hand... they're playing with a pair of twos." (https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/08/tre...mistake-country-playing-with-losing-hand.html)
- Said at the beginning of the tariffs that a group of other countries - specifically Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and India - would join the U.S. in a deal aimed at a "grand encirclement" of China (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/news...rclement-plan-for-china-bloomberg-new-economy)
- After China retaliated with rare earths in October he framed it as "China versus the world" and said that the U.S. would rally "substantial global support" against China on this. (https://www.foxbusiness.com/media/t...inancing-war-us-china-trade-tensions-escalate)

He was proven completely wrong on all counts.

And now he's adopting a very different tone, speaking of "mutual respect" and "fair competition" as a goal. As the saying goes, reality is the best teacher..."



 
Thanks to China's Rare Earth ban for Military Use, Lockheed-Martin is proposing to deliver F-35 without their radars for the next 2 years.



Its a mounting issue, not a gallium issue. The bulkhead mounting are not cross-compatible between the current APG-81 and the new APG-85; the dual mount is apparently taking 18-24mo to field. This speaks to other issues endemic to the F-35 program, but the lack of Chinese raw materials isn't one of them.

Also, the photo with the 'balance weights' is an F-35A airframe that was written off some years ago in an accident and is used as a ground training aid, hence the janky weights.

 
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