Looks fancy! What this means is you take our trade deficit with each country and divide it by the country's exports to us. For example, we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia, meaning we buy $17.9 billion more from them than they buy from us. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9 billion divided by $28 billion is 64%, which Trump says is their tariff on American imports. That's right, a trade deficit is a "tariff." Divide this in half and you get 32%, which is now our tariff on Indonesian goods.
Just to be clear, Indonesia does not have a 64% tariff on American goods. We buy more from them than they buy from us because we're a bigger market and have more money. It would be like me complaining that I have a "trade imbalance" with Publix, because I buy food from them, but they don't buy anything from me. That leads to a 100% trade imbalance, so by Trump's logic, I should impose a 50% tariff on anything I buy from Publix. This is why the tariff on goods from Lesotho (a small, very poor country in southern Africa) is 50%, because we buy some stuff from them, but they don't buy much from us.
There is also a tariff on goods from Heard Island, and the McDonald Islands, which are Australian territories, and are uninhabited by anyone other than penguins. Meanwhile, there are no tariffs on imports from Russia, Cuba, and North Korea.
If you're wondering where this formula came from, the source is "Grok," Elon Musk's AI platform.
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One example is tariff on coffee from Indonesia 37%, a country which has no export of coffee😂 10% tariff on every country which has deficit on trade with USA 🤫Europe , Canada and Mexico are ganging up with new trade agreement as it suites their economies best ,bypassing USA.
@OldBrit I would guess its about not physical goods and Geneve took the hit for UK. Gold of value 147 billions were shipped from UK to Geneve and then shipped to US.
@OldBrit That gold was in deposits , banks keep bars of 10kg each , a private person is allowed to ship gold of max 1kg bars. Genève is a hub for melting it to onekg from all over the world.
@Khenpal1 but you claim £147billion has been shipped. By whom? From where to where?
The UK government only owns 310 tons about £16billion worth. The Bank of England only holds about £98billion worth for all its clients.... So I'm confused where this is from.
Also this still has nothing to do with the "reciprocal" tariffs.
@OldBrit from the Bank of England's vaults to Genève ,increased demand for physical metal in the US when settling paper gold contracts instead of traditional cash settlements, which don't involve buyers and sellers exchanging gold. This is due to the difference in trades that occur between London and New York. And its in USA dollars , gold value this year went up 20%The start of 2025 has seen record amounts of gold moved from vaults in London to New York on the back of tariff rhetoric. price differential between gold sold in the UK and the US, which has seen an increase in physical gold shipments between the two countries Overall, 151 metric tons of gold were moved out of London vaults in January, destined for New York City, the highest ever recorded. Its not only UK gold , but gold from other countries being exchanged , that's why numbers do not add.
@Khenpal1 but that means you're claiming the bank of England has empty its entire vaults of all gold and somehow made another £50 billion worth available.
@Khenpal1 about £14 billion flowed from UK to usa ahead of tariff concerns in Jan 2025. Not 140+ there simply isn't that amount of gold available in the vaults. Again UK government has about £16billion
@OldBrit From November till end of a March could be 80 billions , last month and April could be 30 or more April -May 30 more . Its take now 9 weeks to see numbers. I don't believe we have exact numbers , Germans want their gold out of USA , they wonder if the gold is there at all.
