Trump's latest threat - respect his tech bro mates or be slugged with more and/or higher tariffs

@Rusham Easy solution, New Zealand is to stop imposing tarriffs on American imported goods....problem solved

@sunsporter1649 Does NZ do that now? Australia doesn't. Trump doesn't have the right to play god.

@butterflybaby75
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/christmas-gifts-doubt-nz-post-stops-us-deliveries-rnz

And also from many other countries too

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/26/postal-services-suspend-us-usa-deliveries-how-will-it-affect-you

@butterflybaby75 Neither does Christopher Luxon

@sunsporter1649
In New Zealand we don't impose tariffs on american goods. Our current taxation covers the government's needs, so why would we raise costs for our consumers?

@sunsporter1649
Christopher Luxon is our democratically elected Prime Minister and his party is in a coalition agreement with two other parties.

Let's see the americans try to get that level of political tolerance and cooperation 😂

Then again, New Zealand, unlike the US, is a democracy... although we too have a king - just like the US

@newjaninev2 LOL, the USA is a Constitutional Republic, elected by the people, not a coalition. And we all know a camel is a horse designed by a coaliation.

@sunsporter1649
..and as usual, you know nothing about tariffs either.

What else you got for us, sunsporter?

@sunsporter1649 (I love it when they don't see it coming) The american Constitution is currently being ignored, corrupted, and generally shredded. Coalitions moderate the actions of the government - which is why coalitions won't be possible in america - there will be only the MAGA Party, and the sole function of 'elected representatives' will be to rubber-stamp the edicts of King Donald.
That will sound very familiar to russians, who are ruled in similar manner by trump's idol.

Got any obsolete, irrelevant, cartoons about that?

@newjaninev2

@swirlie And of course you are the simular worlds expert on tariffs, eh?

@sunsporter1649
That is correct.

@swirlie Are you aware of the word "reciprocal"?

@sunsporter1649
Yes of course! Reciprocal means "mutual friendship". Like you and me... we have a reciprocal friendship with each other. I love you, but you love me more.

@sunsporter1649 New Zealand doesn’t impose tariffs on american goods and america arbitrarily imposes tariffs on New Zealand's goods and this is reciprocal... how?

Perhaps americans will be happy to pay higher prices for New Zealand goods... perhaps they'll be delighted to have yet another tax eat into their income... perhaps they'll be happy to have their consumer choices dictated by the government - after all, the russians enjoyed that for 70 years.

@sunsporter1649 Your orange god told you all the tariffs would be "reciprocal," and you just swallowed that without checking??????

@newjaninev2 New Zealand exporters of most goods to the United States now face a 15 percent import duty, a significant increase on the 10 percent “baseline” figure in place since April.

A stony-faced Nicola Willis, the finance minister, called Trump’s move a “disappointing development,” arguing that New Zealand had suffered from the application of a “very blunt formula which does not take account of the low tariffs we impose on U.S. products.”

@sunsporter1649 So tell us then, sunstroke, exactly what tariffs does NZ impose??

Here's a hint: countries often protect an important domestic business such as, say dairy farming in the case of the US. But if NZ protects its woolies, is that any reason to tariff everything from NZ? No, it is NOT.

@ElwoodBlues Products currently exempt from the 10% additional tariff are: lumber, copper, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, certain critical minerals, and energy and energy products: listed in Annex II of the Executive Order. These may be subject to sector-specific tariffs in future; the sector investigations into lumber and copper, announced previously, remain ongoing.

@sunsporter1649 Thanks for answering what I didn't ask. Try again:

Tell us then, sunstroke, exactly what tariffs does NZ impose??

@ElwoodBlues
So now the Washington bureaucracy will need to be greatly expanded in order to monitor and adjust and fine-tune those lists (and of course they'll need to predict what will and wont be needed for years ahead). That's the system the Soviets used - and there were shortages of everything over and over and over 😂

Besides, DOGE will soon come along and shut down the Bureau of Central Tariff Planning or whatever it will be called, and then trump will install one of his Epstein cronies as the director.

@sunsporter1649
The big problem for the US is that the rest of the world simply can't be bothered dealing with yet another autocracy that more and more resembles the russian shambles - we're busy forming new trade treaties and alliances. The US is becoming irrelevant - isolated and ignored. The rest of us have more important things to think about.