back to article Here's the list of Chinese kit facing extra US import tariffs: Hard disk drives, optic fiber, PCB making equipment, etc

The US government on Tuesday revealed the list of Chinese imports it plans to slap extra tariffs on, under orders from President Trump, amid rising trade tensions between America and China. The much-awaited list [PDF] includes metal alloys, electronic parts, and industrial machinery. These extra fees could make a decent dent …

  1. Tom 38

    So Trump, in an attempt to keep/bring jobs back to America has made US IT service companies more expensive to run and (shortly) not legal in Europe. That will end well.

    1. Ian Michael Gumby
      Black Helicopters

      @ Tom 38 You don't get it...

      Trump's tariffs ... they went from mega tarriffs to being whittled down.

      Want to bet that most of the tariffs go away after Trump starts to talk w NORKS? And of course some other trade agreements.

      Trump is an interesting character.

      1. Geoffrey W

        Re: @ Tom 38 You don't get it...

        RE: "Trump is an interesting character"

        Is that like the supposed Chinese curse? May you live in interesting times.

      2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: @ Tom 38 You don't get it...

        Trump is an interesting character.

        And a poor diplomat: driving rapprochement in Korea is not in American interests. But as long as it plays well at home he'll do pretty much anything regardless of the consequences.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: @ Tom 38 You don't get it...

          >Don't worry, Trumpy's stupidity and flagrant incompetence with international commerce will soon trigger a collapse that will make the “ DOT-COM” crash of the 90s look like a picnic,

          I'm counting on it. I want to buy a bigger house and I can't afford it. Prices for bigger houses have already started to fall after the Brexit vote has started to drive money away from the country and next March should make a bigger dent. A big crash should do the trick - it's what allowed me to get the place I'm in now on my crappy IT salary. Assuming I still have a job then of course.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @ Tom 38 You don't get it...

            "I'm counting on it. I want to buy a bigger house and I can't afford it."

            Just wait for the many ignoramuses in the US to realise that anthropogenic global warming is actually a thing and coastal property prices are going to nosedive.

            "Prices for bigger houses have already started to fall"

            Only for the last 2 months.

            after the Brexit vote has started to drive money away from the country "

            Brexit will attract that sort of money - fewer regulations, free market, more free trade options, etc.

        2. Adam 52 Silver badge

          Re: @ Tom 38 You don't get it...

          I think a peaceful nuclear armed state is very much in American interests, and you can draw your own parallels with a united Germany.

          Will be interesting to see how this pans out and what they are actually trying to coax out of China.

      3. Lotaresco

        Re: @ Tom 38 You don't get it...

        "Trump is an interesting character."

        In the same sense that Toxoplasmosis is an interesting disease, yes.

        1. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

          Re: @ Tom 38 You don't get it...

          Toxoplasmosis is an interesting disease

          It's interesting if you are a cat - more mice!

          Less so if you are on the "being eaten" side of the transaction.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Trump is an interesting character.

        That's understatement at it's finest.

        "You've got to watch out for that Hannibal Lector, he's quirky"

        "Jacob Rees-Mogg, he can be eccentric"

        "Mad Jack McMad has a fascinating world view"

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Trump is an interesting character.

          "Jacob Rees-Mogg, he can be eccentric"

          Still, at least he's not a fully fledged weirdo like Corbyn.

    2. suzaku-le

      Don't worry, Trumpy's stupidity and flagrant incompetence with international commerce will soon trigger a collapse that will make the “ DOT-COM” crash of the 90s look like a picnic, which he will of course shift the blame to the Democrats, Clinton, or Obama, because EVERYONE knows he's perfect and never makes mistakes or lies.

      1. naive

        Trade deficit 375 BILLION dollars. How dumb someone has to be not to do anything about it, dumb as a libtard it seems. Don't support the elites selling you high dollar Chinese crap, and taking your job at the same time.

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Trade deficit 375 BILLION dollars.

          Trade surpluses are a problem, usually of the country with them. What does China do with all that cash? Buy American assets, particularly US treasury bills. If you want to know where this leads look at the Japanese boom and bust of the 1980s and 1990s. Germany isn't doing that well with its own trade surplus either: it means savings being invested abroad in dodgy assets.

          International monetary policy has for years trade more or less successfully, usually the latter, tried to deal with the problem of surpluses. Trade wars, howeve, have never worked because all the incentives are against them.

          However, news just in: American manufacturing jobs were lost to automation and rationalisation. Difficult to see how giving US robots preferential treatment will bring well paid jobs back to the rustbelt.

        2. rmullen0

          Except that both the corrupt political parties in the US are for these "free" trade deals. You act as if the Republicans are against this. Not by a long shot. Just wait and watch. If Trump keeps this up, he will be treading on thin ice. The 1% puppet masters aren't going to like it. Then get ready for the deep state to step in even more than they are now.

        3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          "Trade deficit 375 BILLION dollars."

          I wonder how much of the deficit is due to outsourced US manufacturing?

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          is that you, Donald?

          I think there's a billygoat on your bridge...

    3. Fungus Bob
      Happy

      "So Trump, in an attempt to keep/bring jobs back to America has made US IT service companies more expensive to run and (shortly) not legal in Europe. That will end well."

      Yes, a good thing. If IT collapses in this country, the NSA will not be able to do mass spying on everyone.

      1. VikiAi
        Go

        "Yes, a good thing. If IT collapses in this country, the NSA will not be able to do mass spying on everyone."

        They will just get Putin's Russia to do it for them.

        1. Fungus Bob
          Thumb Up

          @VikiAi

          "They will just get Putin's Russia to do it for them."

          That's OK. Here in the Land O' The Free we won't have any internets left , so we won't be spyed on.

    4. TheVogon

      Hopefully no tariff on popcorn while I watch Trump crash and burn?

  2. Oh Homer
    Mushroom

    Nationalism Trumps Consumer Choice, apparently

    Yeah, this is great, Trump. So the already impoverished majority in America will now have even higher prices to pay.

    That's OK, though, 'cause just think of all those minimum wage jobs it'll create, so there'll be even more people with not enough money to pay your artificially inflated prices.

    Genius.

    Nationalists should be banned from politics. No, actually nationalists should just be banned. Period.

    1. llaryllama

      Re: Nationalism Trumps Consumer Choice, apparently

      This has nothing to do with nationalism and has everything to do with fair trade.

      Obviously there is a negotiation tactic going on here, just like buying something at a Chinese night market. The vendor gives you a high price, you counter with a much lower one, pretend to walk away and at the last second they will call you back to make a deal.

      At the moment America is basically taking the opening price, adding 10% because they don't want to upset the vendor and pretending not to notice when they steal stuff from their backpack.

    2. naive

      Re: Nationalism Trumps Consumer Choice, apparently

      Liberals should be banned from politics. Not only they outsourced hundreds of thousands of jobs, they caused large deficits, destroyed middle class, sunk the US in debts and as a reward for creating an invisible ruling elite two or three dozen billionaires, they even cheat out of paying taxes.

      It is the liberals who made Americans poor by taking their jobs, so the happy few can have multiple 100 million dollars yachts and lear jets.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Nationalism Trumps Consumer Choice, apparently

        OK, I'll bite...

        Surely it is unregulated, profit seeking corporations that outsourced hundreds of thousands of jobs?

        Surely it is the loss of any advantage in education compared to nations like India that has eroded the middle class and allowed their jobs to be globalised?

        As far as I can see, these things are the responsibility of Republican policies...

        Or maybe 'liberals' means different things depending on whether someone is talking about gay rights or import tariffs... I've lost track of the fractured lunacy of US politics, TBH...

        1. Teiwaz

          Re: Nationalism Trumps Consumer Choice, apparently

          Or maybe 'liberals' means different things depending on whether someone is talking about gay rights or import tariffs...

          To a certain manipulated section of the American public 'liberals' are always the enemy, I think it's only cause 'commie' has gone out of fashion and harder to pin on anyone, and I don't think the word socialist even exists in the american lexicon (which is a thin volume, to say the least).

          Problem is, it seems to be catching on in the UK (like it's from a 'Friends' episode or something).

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Nationalism Trumps Consumer Choice, apparently

        Liberals should be banned from politics.

        Glad to see you getting out and about. Just keep up that work on integrating, and you’ll get along great.

      3. David 45
        FAIL

        Re: Nationalism Trumps Consumer Choice, apparently

        No, no......TRUMP should be banned from politics! He's only playing at it. He was never a politician and sure as hell he's not even learning to be one now!

  3. Barry Rueger

    Hats off!

    Great. Now I'm tempted to spend an hour on Google to find out just how many hat making machines are imported from China each year.

    84490050 ........... Machinery for making felt hats; blocks for making hats; parts thereof

    1. Phil Kingston

      Re: Hats off!

      Don't forget to narrow it down to only those machines used in making hats out of felt.

      1. Lotaresco

        Re: Hats off!

        "Don't forget to narrow it down to only those machines used in making hats out of felt."

        Can I get felt here?

        1. VikiAi
          Go

          Re: Hats off!

          "Can I get felt here?"

          If you are female, I hear the President of the Free World is a bit grabby.

          1. TheVogon

            Re: Hats off!

            "I hear the President of the Free World is a bit grabby."

            The president of the US is too.

    2. Teiwaz

      Re: Hats off!

      People aren't wearing enough hats

      Apparently it's one of the secrets of the Meaning of Life...

  4. thames
    FAIL

    Even American military arms suppliers can't compete in the US market

    Here's my favourite items from the list. Apparently, Chinese torpedo makers are selling their wares in the US market at unfairly low prices. American howitzer makers and makers of aircraft carrier catapults and arrestor gear are facing similar problems. If only the Pentagon didn't insist on buying the lowest price armaments sold at Walmart instead of buying from American suppliers.

    • Artillery weapons (for example, guns, howitzers, and mortars)
    • Rocket launchers; flame-throwers; grenade launchers; torpedo tubes and similar projectors
    • Rifles, military
    • Shotguns, military
    • Military weapons, nesoi
    • Bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles and similar munitions of war and pts thereof; other ammunition projectiles & pts. thereof
    • Aircraft launching gear and parts thereof; deck-arrestors or similar gear and parts thereof
    • Air combat ground flying simulators and parts thereof

    More seriously, I have scanned over the list and a lot of items look like they are there to pad out the length of the list. I suspect that a great many of the more mundane items are not made in the US at all and there is no US industry to protect.

    Where the US may run into problems is with a lot of obscure components that go into products that are made in the US, and which will raise the cost of producing those items enough that the company simply closest up shop in the US and moves the production to Mexico to get around the tariffs.

    1. veti Silver badge

      Re: Even American military arms suppliers can't compete in the US market

      Then he'll slap the same tariffs on Mexico.

      Trump's rules are very simple: importing is for losers, winners (or "cheats", if they're foreign) export.

      If the country as a whole is idiot enough to give him his head (which currently I wouldn't bet a groat against), I'm sure he can, in time, foster a thriving US domestic industry in manufacturing everything on the list, no matter how obscure or mundane. Of course they'll be more expensive and lower quality than the imports, but they'll be AMERICAN, dammit!, and that's what matters.

      The depressing part is, this will actually create jobs. Incredibly wastefully, but still - jobs. The economy as a whole will be trashed (in much the same way, and for much the same reasons, as the Soviet Union's economy was during the Cold War), but everyone will be working, and it will take a long time for the reality to percolate that the whole country has been basically frozen in time while the rest of the world moved on.

      I've known this whole century that we were seeing the end of American power. I'm just amazed at how quickly it's happening now.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Even American military arms suppliers can't compete in the US market

        The depressing part is, this will actually create jobs.

        I think this is unlikely. If the US retreats from international trade, it will attract less investment and it is investment that's needed to create the jobs. Instead US isolationism could weaken the dollar hegemony, potentially driving up US funding costs significantly, unsettling financial markets and driving investment and jobs elsewhere. As has happened with every protectionist regime of the last 50 years. Sure, American won't be another Zimbabwe or Venezuela but it will be diminished.

  5. PeterGriffin

    Reads in parts as though crafted with the assistance of favoured Republican financial donors - Cash Machines/ATM devices and parts, farming equipment and parts, heavy industry machines and parts, aviation, munitions, wind turbines, electric cars, electric motors...

    Reads in part as a list of low value items (semiconductor and electronics parts esp) that will still be cheap enough that the tariff will be paid and the US Govt gets extra cash.

    Reads in parts as filler: cassette players (without record function), crt based projectors

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      "low value items (semiconductor and electronics parts esp) that will still be cheap enough that the tariff will be paid and the US Govt gets extra cash."

      Not necessarily unless the tariff also applies to the same parts in finished products. It makes home produced goods (even) less competitive with imports. Adding tariffs on production equipment pushes that cost up still further.

  6. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Back when Europe had import duty on DRAM ...

    There were people buying broken DIMMS. The DIMMS moved to a different company name and were shipped out of Europe for a "replacement under guaranty" certificate. A crate of new DIMMS (different manufacturers and different sizes) could then be shipped in without paying import duty.

    Hold on to your broken hard disks - their scrap value is about to increase.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Back when Europe had import duty on DRAM ...

      Displacement is the likely result of these tariffs as well and that's for those on stuff the US actually imports from China. But Trump doesn't care, he just wants to look good in front of the base.

  7. rmullen0

    Should have happened decades ago

    I don't think Trump knows what he's doing, but, this is something that should have happened decades ago. Complete industries shouldn't be outsourced and moved in order to use slave labor. But, that is the epic fail of a capitalist system that we live in. A completely unsustainable system that is destroying the planet.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: Should have happened decades ago

      Decades ago it would have been productive - there were factories making it elsewhere

      Now - not so much. The two decades of currency manipulation, direct and indirect subsidies have killed near all of the non-Chinese electronics manufacturing. All of the manufacturing is in China. Taxing it will not help as everybody sees this as a short term thing and would rather grin and bear it instead of investing the billions you need for a proper high volume lithography rig and supporting infra to print chips.

      Just for comparison purposes - Chinese stopped the sponsorship of textile manufacturing as too low tech/low margin more than 5 years ago and it is now evenly spread throughout the third (and not so third like Eastern Europe) world. They have no intention of doing this to electronics though - they know that it is their biggest long term leverage on the rest of the world and they are not letting go off it.

      1. Tom 38
        Headmaster

        Re: Should have happened decades ago

        The two decades of currency manipulation, direct and indirect subsidies have killed near all of the non-Chinese electronics manufacturing. All of the manufacturing is in China.

        Fact check: China produces less than 5% of globally produced semiconductors[1], and buys less than half of all semiconductors produced[2], so there must be a fair bit of electronics manufacture not going on in China.

        [1] trade.gov 2015 semiconductors executive summary

        [2] Statista Worldwide semiconductor sales by country 2016

        1. TheVogon

          Re: Should have happened decades ago

          "so there must be a fair bit of electronics manufacture not going on in China."

          Such as in Taiwan?

      2. sal II

        Re: Should have happened decades ago

        >>The two decades of currency manipulation, direct and indirect subsidies have killed near all of the non-Chinese electronics manufacturing.

        South Korea begs to differ.

        Electronics assembly - maybe, Electronics manufacturing not so much

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh no !

    They will tax Elon's BBQ torches: 93012000 ... flame-throwers...

    Congratulations to Mr. Trump for turning the US into a protectionist $hithole.

    Me ? Instead of selling parts (some from evil China), I will send preassembled systems (main board from Taiwan) instead. Now that will save 'murican jobs.

    1. llaryllama

      Re: Oh no !

      There is a difference, though, in that Taiwan is extremely open about trade, more so even than Europe. I have imported millions of dollars worth of industrial machinery, parts etc. into Taiwan from the US with mostly zero duties. Taiwan has a fairly balanced ratio of imports:exports and it's very easy for foreign entities to do business here.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Oh no !

        There is a difference, though, in that Taiwan is extremely open about trade, more so even than Europe.

        Wouldn't have anything to do America's promise to defend Taiwan from China and the massive arms deals as a result would it? Taiwan, like South Korea, is almost a US client state.

        China does play fast and loose with trade rules, but largely because multinational corporations are desperate to get at the huge market and boost their own profit margins by making there. However, the end of the low wage employment boom is in sight with peak employment probably already past. At the moment it's not clear whether it will be automation or the declining labour force that drives the biggest change in China since Deng Xiaoping. Sort of like Japan since the 1990s but so much more so.

        1. llaryllama

          Re: Oh no !

          No it wouldn't, all WTO countries are given exactly the same treatment here.

          Taiwan is a highly liberal, democratic and peaceful country with a nutjob neighbour. From a moral standpoint this is exactly the sort of country and system the US should defend, but Taiwanese are not idiots and realize we are basically on our own in case of military action by China.

          Automation will not change China, by the time wages are high enough to make it worthwhile all the cheap manufacturing will have moved on somewhere else.

  9. llaryllama

    I'm with Mr. T on this one

    As someone who lived in Asia for most of their life and has tried exporting to China as a small business I am fully aware of how one-sided the realities of foreign trade are right now.

    It's basically impossible to export even small quantities of many products into China due to ridiculous laws and red tape at customs. China whines loudly at increased tariffs for industries that are subsidized by government cronyism. cheap labour and lax regulations. But even with increased tariffs billions of dollars will continue to feed into the Chinese juggernaut while the Chinese market remains firmly closed for business except by cooperation with local government-connected entities.

    China has been playing this game a lot smarter than western peers in the last 30 or so years and uses democratic openness against itself.

    I would love to see genuine global free trade but that only works when all parties are playing fair. I'm amazed that so many people do not understand how China is gaming the west over trade and western countries are losing badly just to get slightly cheaper smartphones and dishwashers.

    1. sprograms

      Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

      Even in the comments on this site it is clear, Americans, yes, even techies, typically do not understand the barriers to importing goods into China. They've forbidden western companies into the financial sector for decades....until they have the domestic market so sewn up that even a Goldman Sachs will not be able to make headway if they enter the market.

      The list of import duties, products forbidden to import, requirements to enter a joint venture with a Chinese (often government owed) partner, requirements to expose technology to that partner and to the government, and onward. Understanding the complex regulatory and political (cronyism) barriers requires much time and experience. If we implemented half of the unfair trade practices against them, they'd crumble in a year.

      1. rmullen0

        Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

        Goldman Sachs are a bunch of scumbags. Good for China for not letting them in. Goldman Sachs is the worst of the worst. Massive tax cuts/theft for the billionaire 1% anyone? Never mind their privatization of roads.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

      >I would love to see genuine global free trade but that only works when all parties are playing fair. I'm amazed that so many people do not understand how China is gaming the west over trade and western countries are losing badly just to get slightly cheaper smartphones and dishwashers.

      You're absolutely right, but Trump's trade war isn't going to help this. What China have done is make it difficult for all products. What Trump has done is put tariffs on a small number, which will drive up prices for those products in general. The retaliatory tariffs will have an effect elsewhere and it will ultimately be the US consumer that pays.

      Generally with these things, there's a carrot approach and a stick approach. The carrot approach would be to make it more appealing for US companies to make their products in the US. It's far cheaper to make them in China, and the company bigwigs and shareholders don't give a shit that it makes Americans poorer, because America's system is aimed at enriching the individual.

      Trump is going for the stick approach. He's using it against the wrong people though, because the people he should be targeting are himself and his cronies. Never going to happen. Far better for the US consumer to lose out.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

        You're absolutely right, but Trump's trade war isn't going to help this.

        He just wants Republicans who support him to do well in the mid-terms. If there is a real trade war, it would lead to significant job losses in the US. But Trump only needs a phoney one so the chumps in Trumpistan think that next week, next month, next year things will improve for them. So expect lots of announcements about hard tariffs while the details leak out. Trade will largely displace and America will become a less attractive place to do business, but it might mean keeping majorities in a far more pliant Congress.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

          "He just wants Republicans who support him to do well in the mid-terms."

          This. It makes planning more than two years in advance an impossibility since they are always looking to the next electoral milestone. Probably more like a max of one year since they need to be thinking about the next ballot box a year or more in advance.

        2. The Nazz

          Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

          Forget Trade, Trump needs only one policy to win future elections.

          Education, Education, Education, Education!

          What could possibly go wrong?

          Please don't ask, must go, feel free to make your own list.

      2. Missing Semicolon Silver badge

        Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

        Carrot? Don't be daft. China has been taking the "carrots" for years, and never changing their practices. Up until now, nobody has dared to use a "stick". Such weakness has been exploited

        1. Tom 38

          Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

          The problem is, Trump thinks he is the one holding the stick. He thinks he is bashing China with it, but he hasn't noticed he keeps missing and smacking himself in the balls.

      3. llaryllama

        Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

        Generally with these things, there's a carrot approach and a stick approach. The carrot approach would be to make it more appealing for US companies to make their products in the US. It's far cheaper to make them in China, and the company bigwigs and shareholders don't give a shit that it makes Americans poorer, because America's system is aimed at enriching the individual.

        It's cheaper to make them in China for mostly all the wrong reasons. Low wages, minimal labour laws, poor safety, almost zero environmental controls and in some cases state subsidies.

        Large corporations don't care about this stuff and can't help themselves. They will buy from the cheapest seller even if they know puppies and kittens are being fed into a grinder for fuel.

        Some kind of control is still needed at the government level so basic ethical standards can actually be maintained and we don't all just race to the bottom.

    3. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

      It's basically impossible to export even small quantities of many products into China due to ridiculous laws and red tape at customs.

      Doesn't seem to have stopped the Germans selling into China. Making in China is more of a problem but the US market is pretty damn well protected as well.

      1. TheVogon

        Re: I'm with Mr. T on this one

        "Doesn't seem to have stopped the Germans selling into China."

        But to do that without the bs they generally need a local partner. And then the same IP theft problem applies. For instance:

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/12382747

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    85198125 ........... Cassette players (non-recording), nesoi

    85284925 ........... Non-high definition color video monitors, nonprojection type, w/CRT, video display

    diagonal not over 34.29 cm, not incorp. VCR or player

    The 80's called and they want their tariffs back.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    New Black Market

    Instead of the usual cra*ks, c*kes, weed, painkillers and other illegal drugs traded on the black markets, Now you will also get iron, lead, coal, Hard disk drives, optic fiber, PCB making equipment, and many more.

    So the black market is the new Amazon? /joke

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Too many questions.

    84138200 ........... Liquid elevators

    Could someone explain how these work? I just don't get how liquid can move you between floors without it getting messy.

    84172000 ........... Bakery ovens, including biscuit ovens

    Surely as it's America should that not be cookie ovens?

    84211200 ........... Centrifugal clothes dryers

    84211900 ........... Centrifuges, other than cream separators or clothes dryers

    Is cream separation a problem in America?

    84842000 ........... Mechanical seals

    They have robotic semi-aquatic marine mammals?

    84594100 ........... Boring machines, numerically controlled, nesoi

    Lenovo laptops?

    1. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

      Re: Liquid elevators

      Try an Archimedes Screw.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Try an Archimedes Screw.

        No sex for me, I'm British.

      2. Grant Fromage

        Re: Liquid elevators

        I think that might be hydraulic piston lifts/ hydraulic jacks, just an offering

    2. Jason Hindle

      Re: Too many questions.

      Well a biscuit is a bread product, in the US. I remember my first time in a US McDonalds (Wichita, KS), causing confusion by asking for a sausage and egg McMuffin. They suggested a sausage and egg Biscuit, instead.

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

        Re: Too many questions.

        They suggested a sausage and egg Biscuit, instead.

        That takes the biscuit!

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Too many questions.

      "84172000 ........... Bakery ovens, including biscuit ovens

      Surely as it's America should that not be cookie ovens?"

      Since the origin is biscuit is "twice cooked", it does make it difficult to understand why a scone in the US became a biscuit while all biscuits of any type became cookies.

  13. d3vy
    Joke

    Ive bought stuff from china before and its arrived with a sticker with "Gift/Books" on to avoid tax..

    I wonder if there will be a sudden influx of ISO containers containing "Books" coming to the US

  14. d3vy

    Am I reading it right that the tariffs will only apply to stuff imported from China?

    There's an opportunity here for someone in Canada or similar nearby country to set up a depot where Chinese goods come in, get re-labelled and land shipped into the US..

    1. thames

      The tariffs will apply to goods originating in China, otherwise there would be plenty of places in the world where they could be transshipped through and relabelled.

      Plenty of US imports already arrive through Canadian ports, as many US ports are generally more expensive. Of course American port operators are crying this is unfair and want tariffs applied on port services.

      Trump has opened a new eastern front in his trade wars before finishing the one he started with Canada and Mexico. Washington is now desperately trying to make trade peace with those two now that it turns out that China isn't going to surrender. Boeing's sales in China may turn out to be the Stalingrad in all this.

  15. rob miller

    Finally!

    No more waiting to buy electronics kit in the US, it will be cheaper in the UK :-)

  16. x 7

    Medical costs

    judging from the chemicals and drugs listed, he's going to increase the USA's bill for generic drugs by around 25%

    going to create havoc with medical insurance - and Obamacare (or whatever its called now)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Medical costs

      Obamacare (or whatever its called now)

      TrumpDontCare?

    2. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Medical costs

      @x 7

      judging from the chemicals and drugs listed, he's going to increase the USA's bill for generic drugs by around 25%

      Trump probably didn't anticipate the effect it will have on the price of super strength hair regrowth factor

      1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Medical costs

        "Trump probably didn't anticipate the effect it will have on the price of super strength hair regrowth factor"

        I wonder if Vote Trump baseball caps and T-shirts will be caught up in the tariff war?

  17. x 7

    NRA are going to love him

    these raise a chuckle

    93012000 ........... Rocket launchers; flame-throwers; grenade launchers; torpedo tubes and similar

    projectors

    93019030 ........... Rifles, military

    93019060 ........... Shotguns, military

    93019090 ........... Military weapons, nesoi

    93040040 ........... Pistols & other guns (o/than rifles) that eject missiles by release of comp. air or gas, a

    spring mechanism or rubber held under tension

    93051020 ........... Parts and accessories nesoi, for revolvers or pistols of heading 9302

    93051040 ........... Parts and accessories nesoi, for revolvers or pistols designed to fire only blank

    cartridges or blank ammunition

    93051060 ........... Parts and accessories nesoi, for muzzle-loading revolvers and pistols

    93051080 ........... Parts and accessories nesoi, for revolvers or pistols nesoi

    93059940 ........... Parts and accessories for articles of heading 9303 other than shotguns or rifles

    93059960 ........... Parts and accessories for articles of headings 9301 to 9304, nesoi

    93063041 ........... Cartridges nesoi and empty cartridge shells

    93063080 ........... Parts of cartridges nesoi

    93069000 ........... Bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles and similar munitions of war and pts

    thereof; other ammunition projectiles & pts. thereof

    1. VikiAi
      Black Helicopters

      Re: NRA are going to love him

      The NRA is a manufacturers' club. They won't care if their non-corporate groupies get the shaft.

  18. x 7

    NESOI

    for the confused:

    "NESOI. Not elsewhere specified or indicated is used for an item that is not mentioned elsewhere in a classification system, such as a customs or freight tariff. "

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    grease down friday's

    The world has gone all wierd and upside down in a very short time.

    US slaps tariffs on china's gizmo's and stuff. Then China reacts by slapping tariffs on US dead animal products.

    I can only guess all the soon to be idle pig farmers in the US will be called to the microchip fabrication plant any day now with the incentive of greased pig wrestling friday's.

    1. Korev Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: grease down friday's

      Sounds like pork to me...

  20. jms222

    Good for us ?

    So there is presumably lots of scope for us in the UK to buy goods from one party, add a new label and sell them on to the other.

    1. MonkeyCee

      Re: Good for us ?

      "So there is presumably lots of scope for us in the UK to buy goods from one party, add a new label and sell them on to the other."

      I'm fairly sure Canada has a tight lock on that market, eh.

  21. Jason Hindle

    Schemes within schemes?

    Is this meant to encourage manufacturing away from China, to other more trade friendly (but still cheap) bits of the world (thinking Vietnam or Thailand)?

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Re: Schemes within schemes?

      "Is this meant to encourage manufacturing away from China, to other more trade friendly (but still cheap) bits of the world (thinking Vietnam or Thailand)?"

      China is investing relatively heavily in infrastructure projects in a number of African nations. I very much doubt they are only looking at the short term construction profits.

  22. DanceMan

    Hard disk drives -- Canada

    This could hurt Newegg. Presumably their volume buying would supply both US and Canadian operations. But now smaller Canadian competitors could have an advantage, even if their smaller volumes would not get the same quantity discounts.

    Same principle might apply to other products and industries.

  23. mjflory

    Tough for vampires

    30029051 ........... Human blood (p. 15)

    (I suppose the amount gathered in blood drives is insufficient for transfusion needs.)

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