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Not All Tariffs Are Created Equal

Summarizing Michael Lind in Tablet · Published Monday, May 5, 2025

JL;DR SUMMARY The article discusses the ramifications and potential silver linings of the Trump administration's tariff strategy, which caused market turmoil akin to historic economic crises. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude. Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from. But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.

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Tags

Trump Administration National Security China North America Tariffs Manufacturing Industrial Policy Free Trade Trade Policy Economic Strategy

Places mentioned

China

"The emergence of China as a superpower rival on all fronts—military, industrial, commercial, and diplomatic—makes the need for a high degree of American industrial independence as urgent in the 21st century as it was in earlier eras."

Japan

"Even worse, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and India are next to China and thus are subject to blockade or intimidation in a serious Sino-American conflict."

South Korea

"Even worse, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and India are next to China and thus are subject to blockade or intimidation in a serious Sino-American conflict."

Taiwan

"Even worse, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and India are next to China and thus are subject to blockade or intimidation in a serious Sino-American conflict."

Vietnam

"Even worse, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and India are next to China and thus are subject to blockade or intimidation in a serious Sino-American conflict."

India

"Even worse, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and India are next to China and thus are subject to blockade or intimidation in a serious Sino-American conflict."

Liberty, Ohio, United States

"In sifting through the rubble of Liberation Day, in search of useful policies, we can distinguish among tariff policies that are good (sector-specific tariffs and country-specific tariffs), bad (reciprocal tariffs which are not really reciprocal), and ugly (the global or universal tariff)."

United States

"But rational leaders of great powers will insist on a high degree of industrial independence, at the cost of higher domestic consumer prices, if necessary."

Canada

"Instead, the United States should concentrate on achieving industrial economies of scale in an integrated North American bloc that includes the United States, Canada, and Mexico—which are now part of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement—and perhaps other North American countries in time."

Mexico

"Instead, the United States should concentrate on achieving industrial economies of scale in an integrated North American bloc that includes the United States, Canada, and Mexico—which are now part of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement—and perhaps other North American countries in time."

Lesotho

"And the absurdity of the Trump administration’s obsession with bilateral trade deficits in themselves was revealed when Lesotho, a tiny African country of 2.3 million people that exports textiles to the United States, was slapped with a 50 percent tariff, the highest reciprocal tariff imposed by the United States."

Germany

"Among America’s so-called NATO allies, Germany found its largest single trading partner in China, until the United States surpassed China as a market for German exports in 2024."

France

"Moreover, the United States need not target the same products with retaliatory tariffs. To open the EU market to more U.S.-made automobiles, for example, the United States might temporarily impose high tariffs on French cheese or German beer."

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This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.

Cairo Item ID	61736
Cairo Source ID	10
Retrieved	2025-09-17 05:35:35 UTC
Curated	2025-09-17 08:31:32 UTC