Earlier I challenged you to find a single example of a tariff as mentioned in the Orange Oaf's chart. It soon became clear that the numbers put forward were NOT tariffs but were in fact a calculation based on trade surplus/deficit. So when the stupid cockwomble said that the EU applied tariffs to the US what he meant was that Americans buy more products from the EU than they sell to the EU. The same applies to practically every country in the world.

There may be many reasons but the main two are Americans products are at best high price/medium quality and secondly, they are for the US market and not useful in other markets. A good example would be American cars.They are poorly made, plasticky and cheap designs, with poor emissions. Hell, the Corvette, America's sports car has the same suspension as a horse and cart. BUT they are quite cheap. Nevertheless, people around the world don't buy them, because they don't even fit on the roads. You try driving an F150 down a country lane.

So the world doesn't buy American cars. But at the same time the biggest market for Toyota and BMW is America. So America buys foreign cars. They are better quality, better emissions and safer. With a few exceptions, the same applies to most American products and this is why you have a trade deficit.

Incidentally, do you think that charging people more for a foreign car with a tariff will change this? Possibly for a small percentage, but the majority will either buy second hand or put off buying.

Let's look at the actual trade imbalances. Take Canada as an example. The US imported $412bn from Canada and exported $349bn. Anyway that's 350m people vs 40m. So the US buys <$1000 per person of Canadian goods whereas the Canadians buy > $10,000 of US goods per person. And the reason that this import figure is so high is that it includes a lot of oil. If there was no oil then Canada may only export a measly $100bn-$200Bn or so.

So what will happen. There is a lot of speculation about the outcome of the Tangerine Tyrant's tariffs. Personally I would guess the next step will be protectionism. Countries will look to strategies that protect them from US policy tantrums. The one thing we have all learned in the last 3 months is that America can no longer be trusted as a partner. That they renege on deals that they have made and they shit on their allies. In such circumstances, I think you will find China and Europe looking to form new alliances.

It is worth pointing out that these fake 'tariffs' are being levied on GOODS AND PRODUCTS. They highlight the fact that the US is not very good or competitive at producing goods and products.

These tariffs DO NOT MENTION SERVICES. These are quietly ignored by the Mango Mussolini. Why? Well services is a trillion dollar business and the US runs a trade surplus of around $250-$270Bn, and he doesn't want anyone negotiating that away.

Having said that, a great deal of American services are provided by the government, for example in terms of research, or the weather, or space, or communications. Imagine the kind of moron you would have to be to close down work in these areas, and the effect it would have on the American service industry. But you don't need a stable genius to understand that.