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      Trump administration sued over tariffs in US international trade court

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      A legal advocacy group on Monday asked the US court of international trade to block Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on foreign trading partners, arguing that the president overstepped his authority.The lawsuit was filed by the Liberty Justice Center, a legal advocacy group, on behalf of five US businesses that import goods from countries targeted by the tariffs.“No one person should have the power to impose taxes that have such vast global economic consequences,” Jeffrey Schwab, Liberty Justice Center’s senior counsel, said in a statement. “The Constitution gives the power to set tax rates – including tariffs – to Congress, not the President.”The Liberty Justice Center is the litigation arm of the Illinois Policy Institute, a free market thinktank. It was instrumental in the supreme court case Janus v AFSCME in which it successfully fought to weaken public labor unions collective bargaining power.According to the group’s statement, the tariffs case was filed on behalf of five owner-operated businesses who have been severely harmed by the tariffs. The businesses include a New York-based company specializing in the importation and distribution of wines and spirits, an e-commerce business specializing in the production and sale of sportfishing tackle, a company that manufactures ABS pipe in the United States using imported ABS resin from South Korea and Taiwan, a small business based in Virginia that makes educational electronic kits and musical instruments, and a Vermont-based brand of women’s cycling apparel.Representatives of the White House did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.The Trump administration faces a similar lawsuit in Florida federal court, where a small business owner has asked a judge to block tariffs imposed on China. More

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      Tariff turmoil to continue as Trump warns nobody ‘off the hook’ amid smartphone exemption – US politics live

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      Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog.In an announcement made late on Friday evening, Donald Trump’s presidential administration exempted smartphones and computers from the 125% levies imposed on imports from China as well as other “reciprocal” tariffs.The devices would be excluded from the 10% global tariff that Trump recently imposed on most countries, along with the much heftier import tax on China, in what seemed like a softening of the president’s trade positioning towards Beijing.US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery after the announcement. Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to surge after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for three months.China’s commerce ministry said the exemption demonstrated the US taking “a small step toward correcting its erroneous unilateral practice of ‘reciprocal tariffs’,” and suggested the American administration cancel the whole punitive tariff regime.However, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.“He’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said in an interview on ABC. “These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America.”Amid the confusion over the White House’s tariff policy, Trump said he would provide more details on his administration’s approach on semiconductor tariffs later today.But he suggested any tariff exemption for China-made smartphones would be short-lived, writing on his social media: “Nobody is getting off the hook for unfair trade balances”. Stay with us throughout the day as we bring you the latest tariff developments and other US political stories.Spain’s economy minister, Carlos Cuerpo, is expected to meet the US treasury secretary, on Tuesday as he aims to bolster bilateral ties between the two countries.The Trump administration has slapped a 10% tariff on imports of most European goods, including olive oil, although it announced a 90-day pause last week on higher, 25% “reciprocal” duties.Spain is the world’s top exporter of olive oil and also sells important quantities of auto parts, steel and chemicals to the US. The country’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has announced a €14.1bn (£12.2bn; $16bn) government aid package to industry to lessen the domestic impact of Trump’s levies.Maya Yang, a breaking news reporter and live blogger for Guardian US, has filed this story about a warning over the potential consequences of Trump’s erratic economic policies:Billionaire investor Ray Dalio said that he is worried the US will experience “something worse than a recession” as a result of Donald Trump’s trade policies.Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, the 75-year-old hedge fund manager said: “I think that right now we are at a decision-making point and very close to a recession. And I’m worried about something worse than a recession if this isn’t handled well.”He went on to add: “A recession is two negative quarters of GDP and whether it goes slightly there. We always have those things. We have something that’s much more profound. We have a breaking down of the monetary order. We are going to change the monetary order because we cannot spend the amounts of money.”Dalio’s comments come in response to a tumultuous week across the global stock markets following the US president’s tariffs policies that include a 145% tariff raise on China. The billionaire also said there are “profound changes in our domestic order … and world order”, comparing current times with the 1930s.“I’ve studied history and this repeats over and over again. So if you take tariffs, if you take debt, if you take the rising power challenging existing power, if you take those factors and look at the factors, those changes in the orders, the systems, are very, very disruptive. How that’s handled could produce something that is much worse than a recession. Or it could be handled well,” he said.Dalio, who correctly predicted the 2008 recession, also said the current economic state of the US is “at a juncture”.“Let’s take the budget. If the budget deficit can be reduced to 3% of GDP, it will be about 7% if things are not changed. If it could be reduced to about 3% of GDP, and these trade deficits and so on are managed in the right way, this could all be managed very well,” he said.He went on to urge congressional members to take what he calls the “3% pledge”, adding that if they don’t, there will be a supply and demand problem for debt with results that will be “worse than a normal recession.”You can read the full story here:Chinese President Xi Jinping will be welcomed by Vietnam’s President Luong Cuong today as he seeks to strengthen economic ties in south-east Asia amid a trade war with Washington that has caused turmoil in global markets.In an article for the Nhan Dan newspaper, Xi called for more regional cooperation, saying China and Vietnam were “friendly socialist neighbours sharing the same ideals and extensive strategic interests”.He added that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere”, without explicitly mentioning the US.The visit, planned for weeks, comes as Beijing faces 145% US duties, while Vietnam is negotiating a reduction of threatened US tariffs of 46%. China is Vietnam’s biggest trading partner; Hanoi has a good relationship with both Washington and Beijing.As my colleague Rebecca Ratcliffe notes in this story, officials in Hanoi were shocked when Vietnam was hit with the 46% tariff, even after various efforts to appease the Trump administration. The tariff, which has been paused, threatens to devastate the country’s ambitious economic growth plan.Xi will visit Vietnam, a manufacturing powerhouse, from 14 to 15 April, and Malaysia and Cambodia from 15 to 18 April. He last visited Cambodia and Malaysia nine and 12 years ago, respectively.Xi’s trip to Hanoi, his second in less than 18 months, aims to consolidate relations with a strategic neighbour that has received billions of dollars of Chinese investments in recent years as China-based manufacturers moved south to avoid tariffs imposed by the first Trump administration.Good morning and welcome to our US politics blog.In an announcement made late on Friday evening, Donald Trump’s presidential administration exempted smartphones and computers from the 125% levies imposed on imports from China as well as other “reciprocal” tariffs.The devices would be excluded from the 10% global tariff that Trump recently imposed on most countries, along with the much heftier import tax on China, in what seemed like a softening of the president’s trade positioning towards Beijing.US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery after the announcement. Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to surge after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for three months.China’s commerce ministry said the exemption demonstrated the US taking “a small step toward correcting its erroneous unilateral practice of ‘reciprocal tariffs’,” and suggested the American administration cancel the whole punitive tariff regime.However, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.“He’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said in an interview on ABC. “These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America.”Amid the confusion over the White House’s tariff policy, Trump said he would provide more details on his administration’s approach on semiconductor tariffs later today.But he suggested any tariff exemption for China-made smartphones would be short-lived, writing on his social media: “Nobody is getting off the hook for unfair trade balances”. Stay with us throughout the day as we bring you the latest tariff developments and other US political stories. More

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      ‘The sky won’t fall’: China plays down Trump tariff risks as stock markets rally

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      China has played down the risk of damage to its exports from Donald Trump’s tariffs, with an official saying the “the sky won’t fall”, as stock markets rose on Monday amid signs of a retreat on electronics restrictions.The world’s second-largest economy has diversified its trade away from the US in recent years, according to Lyu Daliang, a customs administration spokesperson, in comments reported by state-owned agency Xinhua.China has retaliated forcefully to Washington’s tariffs, with 125% levies on US imports against the US’s total of 145% border taxes on goods moving the other way. The trade war has prompted turmoil on financial markets since Trump first revealed tariffs on every country in the world on 2 April. Since then he has partly retreated on the highest levies on most trading partners for at least 90 days, but has doubled down in his spat with China.The White House offered further relief over the weekend with an exemption from the steepest tariffs for electronics including smartphones, laptops and semiconductors. Trump officials later appeared to walk that back with the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, saying such devices would be “included in the semiconductor tariffs which are coming in probably a month or two”.Trump said on Sunday night on his social network, Truth Social, that “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’”, highlighting that smartphones are still subject to 20% levies and suggesting they could still rise higher.However, investors on Monday appeared unconvinced by Trump’s attempts to play down the retreat. Japan’s Nikkei gained 1.2% while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose by 2.2% and the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges climbed by 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively. European stock market indices also jumped in opening trades, with London’s FTSE 100 up by 1.6%, Germany’s Dax up 2.2%, and France’s Cac 40 up 2%.“The sky won’t fall” for Chinese exports,” China’s Lyu said. “These efforts have not only supported our partners’ development but also enhanced our own resilience”.The customs report also played up China’s “vast domestic market”, and said “the country will turn domestic certainty into a buffer against global volatility”. China has increasingly tried to stimulate private consumption.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionChina’s president, Xi Jinping, on Monday criticised the US tariffs, during a visit to Vietnam. Vietnam has in recent decades grown to become the eighth largest source of goods for US consumers, but it is facing the threat of 46% tariffs when Trump’s 90-day pause expires.In an article in a Vietnamese newspaper, Xi said that a “trade war and tariff war will produce no winner, and protectionism will lead nowhere”. More

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      It is difficult to imagine a post-American world. But imagine it we must | Nesrine Malik

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      “People speak with forked tongues about America,” a veteran foreign correspondent once said to me. It was a long time ago – during a debate about whether the US should intervene in a foreign conflict – and I have never forgotten it. What they meant was that just as the US is condemned for foreign intervention in some instances, it is also called upon to do so in others and then judged for not upholding its moral standards. That dissonance persists, and is even more jarring as we approach the 100th day of Donald Trump’s second term. There is a duality to how the US is seen: as both a country that wantonly violates international law and as the only one capable of upholding that system of law and order. This duality, always tense, is no longer sustainable.I have felt this ambivalence myself – the contradictory demand that the US stay out of it but also anger that it is not doing more. In Sudan, Washington frustratingly refuses to pressure its ally, the UAE, into stopping pumping arms and funding into the conflict. But what proof or history is there to support the delusional notion that the US cares about a conflict in which it has no direct interest? It is an expectation of moral policing from an amoral player that I remember even in childhood, after Iraq invaded Kuwait and the Arab world was rocked with fear of regional war. A fierce debate in our classroom in Sudan on the merits of US intervention was silenced by one indignant evacuee from Kuwait, who said that the most important thing was to defeat Saddam Hussein. Her words occasionally echo in my mind: “We must deal with the greater evil first.”Even in Gaza, as Congress passed package after package of billions in military aid to Israel, there remained some residual hope – long extinguished now – that the phone call to Benjamin Netanyahu would finally come. And even as Trump emboldens Vladimir Putin, abandons Ukraine and slaps tariffs on allies, you can detect that belief in the fundamental viability of the US as an actor that can still default to rationality, and even morality.But, for the first time that I can remember, the conversation is going in a new direction. The appeals to the difference between the presidency and other more solid US institutions are quieter now, as universities, law firms and even parts of the press kowtow to their erratic new king. The questions now being asked are about how Europe and the rest of the world can pivot away from the US, from its USAID programmes nestled within the health budgets of developing countries, and its global system of military assistance and deterrence. But they sound less like practical suggestions and more like attempts to get heads around a reality that is impossible to countenance.The challenge is technical and psychological. It is difficult to imagine a post-American world because America crafted that world. When the US becomes a volatile actor, the very architecture of the global financial order starts to wobble. We saw this in the crisis of confidence in the dollar in the aftermath of Trump’s “liberation-day” tariffs. The robustness of the rule of law and separation of powers – cornerstones of confidence in an economy – are also now in doubt, as the administration goes to war with its own judiciary and the president himself boasts about how many people in the room with him made a killing out of his stock market crash. Is it insider trading if your source is the president?Just as formidable is the mental task of divestment from the US. A friend who holds a green card but lives under an illiberal regime in Asia told me that, deep down, he always felt protected from the dangers of his country’s domestic politics by the knowledge that there was a safe haven to which he could retreat in case of persecution. No longer, as legal residents and visitors are hounded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) or turned away at the border. I know others who have cancelled work trips to the US for fear of deportation or blacklisting. With that insecurity comes an awareness that, for some in the global south who always knew that the US was not a benign presence, there was still the belief that there was something within its own borders that curbed its excesses. This was partly true, but also a reflection of US cultural power. The pursuit of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, “give me … your huddled masses”, the Obama hope iconography; all resonant and powerful touchstones. They are now reduced to dust. It is one thing to know that the US was never the sum of these parts, but another to accept it.And there is a fear in accepting it. Because, for all its violations, the advent of a post-US world induces a feeling of vertigo. A world in which there is no final authority at all might be scarier than a world where there is a deeply flawed one. What is daunting is the prospect of anarchy, a new world where there is no organising principle in a post-ideological, everyone-for-themselves system. Not a cold war order divided into capitalist, communist and non-aligned. And not a post-cold war one divided into western liberal overlords, competing non-democracies and, below them, smaller clients of both.But what the US’s breakdown should really trigger is not overwhelm and bewilderment, but a project to build a new global order in which we all have a stake. What the US chooses to do in terms of foreign and economic policy can affect your shopping basket and the very borders of the nation state in which you live. It remains the world’s largest economy, has the world’s largest military, and is the home of the world’s most powerful entertainment complex. This centrality combined with its collapse reveals the fact that the problem goes deeper than Trump. The world was always dangerously overexposed to whatever direction the US took.Ironically, this all might be the beginning of a process that leads to genuine “liberation days” for other countries, but not the US itself. There is pain ahead, but also a sort of independence. Above all, there might finally be a recognition that the US’s definition of peace and prosperity was always its own, enforced by sheer force of power and propaganda.

      Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist

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      Trump warns exemptions on smartphones, electronics will be short-lived, promises future tariffs

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      The exemption of smartphones, laptops and other electronic products from import tariffs on China will be short-lived, top US officials have said, with Donald Trump warning that no one was “getting off the hook.”“There was no Tariff ‘exception’, Trump said in a social media post on Sunday. “These products are subject to the existing 20% Fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’”In the post on his Truth Social platform, Trump promised to launch a national security trade investigation into the semiconductor sector and the “whole electronics supply chain”.“We will not be held hostage by other Countries, especially hostile trading Nations like China,” he added.The White House had announced on Friday the exclusion of some electronic products from steep reciprocal tariffs on China. US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery after the announcement. Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days.China’s commerce ministry said the exemption demonstrated the US taking “a small step toward correcting its erroneous unilateral practice of ‘reciprocal tariffs’,” and insisted Washington cancel the whole tariff regime.Zhang Li, president of the China Center for Information Industry Development, told state media outlet, China Daily, that the exemptions proved “how important China is to major US tech companies that rely heavily on the country for manufacturing and innovation”.However, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said on Sunday that critical technology products from China would face separate new duties along with semiconductors within the next two months.Lutnick said Trump would enact “a special focus-type of tariff” on smartphones, computers and other electronics products in a month or two, alongside sectoral tariffs targeting semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. The new duties would fall outside Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs on China, he said.“He’s saying they’re exempt from the reciprocal tariffs, but they’re included in the semiconductor tariffs, which are coming in probably a month or two,” Lutnick said in an interview on ABC, predicting that the levies would bring production of those products to the United States. “These are things that are national security, that we need to be made in America.”The world’s two largest economies have been locked in a fast-moving game of brinkmanship since Trump launched a global tariff assault that particularly targeted Chinese imports. China’s leader Xi Jinping said on Monday that protectionism “leads nowhere” and that a trade war would have “no winners”.Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen US levies imposed on China rise to 145%, and Beijing setting a retaliatory 125% levy on US imports. On Friday Beijing said it would ignore any future raises in tariffs by Trump, as they were already so high that there was “no market acceptance for US goods” in China.On Monday a spokesperson for China’s Customs agency said the country’s exports were facing a complex and severe external situation but “the sky will not fall”. They said China’s domestic demand was broad, and they were building a diversified market.Trump’s back-and-forth on tariffs has triggered the wildest swings on Wall Street since the Covid pandemic of 2020. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500 index is down more than 10% since Trump took office on 20 January.After announcing sweeping import taxes on dozens of trade partners, Trump abruptly issued a 90-day pause for most of them. China was excluded from the reprieve.The fallout from Trump’s tariffs – and subsequent whiplash policy reversals – sent shock waves through the US economy, with investors dumping government bonds, the dollar tumbling and consumer confidence plunging.US senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, criticised the latest revision to Trump’s tariff plan, which economists have warned could dent economic growth and fuel inflation.“There is no tariff policy – only chaos and corruption,” Warren said on ABC’s “This Week,” speaking before Trump’s latest post on social media.China has sought to strengthen ties with neighbouring countries amid the escalating trade war. Xi will visit Vietnam on Monday as he begins a tour of south-east Asia.With Reuters and Agence France-Presse More

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      US stock markets expected to recover after Trump drops tariffs on mobiles

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      US stock markets were expected to stage a recovery on Monday after Donald Trump excluded imports of smartphones and laptops from his tariff regime late on Friday night.Shares in Apple and chip maker Nvidia were on course to soar after tariffs on their products imported into the US were lifted for 90 days.The temporary reprieve was widely seen as a climbdown after pressure from Republican leaders concerned that the soaring cost of smartphones would spark a voter backlash. US retailers import about 80% of all smartphones, many of them from China, which Trump has slapped with tariffs totalling 145%.US Customs and Border Protection said items like laptops, hard drives, smartphones, flat-panel monitors and some chips would qualify for the exemption. Vital machines made outside the US that are used to make semiconductors were also excluded.It means these products will avoid the China tariff and the 10% baseline tariffs applied on other countries caught by the new regime.Speaking on Air Force One on Saturday evening, Trump said he would be more specific about the latest exemption rules on Monday. “We’ve been making a lot of money,” he said. “It’s been the other way around. Other countries, in particular China was making a lot of money.”It is not clear how long the exemption will last or whether separate tariffs will be negotiated on the specific products.China has responded with a tariff on all US exports of 125%. Beijing said at the weekend that the reprieve for smartphones was a “small step” toward easing the trade fight between the world’s two biggest economies.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHowever, the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, said the reprieve was likely to be lifted in 90 days and reiterated Trump’s longstanding plan to apply a different, specific levy to the sector.Speaking on NBC, he said: “All those products are going to come under semiconductors, and they’re going to have a special focus-type of tariff to make sure that those products get reshored. We can’t be relying on China for fundamental things that we need.”Lutnick dismissed interpretations of Trump’s reprieve that argued it reflected the president’s realisation that his China tariffs were unlikely to shift more manufacturing of smartphones, computers and other gadgets to the US in the near future.On Sunday Trump warned that no country would be getting “off the hook” on his punishing tariffs, again singling out China for criticism. “NOBODY is getting ‘off the hook’ for the unfair Trade Balances,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. “Especially not China which, by far, treats us the worst!”Apple has spent decades building up a finely tuned supply chain in east Asia, including inside China. The firm has pledged to move some facilities back to the US over the next four years, which will cost it $500bn, including constructing a giant factory in Texas for artificial intelligence servers but was expecting to retain much of its international network as it expands its sales.Trump’s move at the start of April to impose tariffs on imports to the US battered the stocks of tech’s magnificent seven – Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, Amazon, Tesla, Google parent Alphabet and Facebook parent Meta Platforms.At one point, they lost $2.1tn, or 14% of their value, from 2 April. Shares have recovered since last Wednesday after Trump paused the tariffs except on China, allowing tech firms to use India and other conduits to import smartphones. More

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      Worried about your stock market savings as Trump tariffs wreak havoc? Don’t panic

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      This week was enough to make anyone worried about their stock market savings. As a certified public accountant, I don’t give investment advice. But I’m comfortable leaving my money in the stock market. Why? Let’s put things into perspective.Markets are still way upMany younger millennials and gen Z-ers may be panicking about recent falls in the market. But we’ve been here before – and worse. In March 2009, the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost more than half its value from the levels it reached less than two years before. In the past 15 years it has increased sixfold.Today’s economic problems are not as severe as 2009. Corrections happen, and rumors move markets. Which is why the Dow Jones average is down about 15% from its high back in November. However, it’s still at the highest level it’s ever been from before late 2022.Despite losses – and there will always be more losses – overall, people who invested in the markets over the past decade are still in very good shape.The economy is OKLast month the economy added more than 228,000 jobs, despite shedding hundreds of thousands of government workers. Meanwhile, other indices remain strong. True, manufacturing slipped into contraction last month – but that’s not really news, considering that – other than a few blips – it has been in contraction for years. Service industries are in their ninth consecutive month of expansion. Unlike 2009, capital is available and our banking system is strong. Consumers continue to spend. Wages are outpacing inflation.It’s too early to judge Trump’s tariff movesYes, Donald Trump’s trade war is disruptive. Maybe in the next few months – or a little longer – the smoke clears. We’ll see how this plays out. Maybe Trump’s decision to force the US economy to “take the medicine” so early in his administration aims to time this upside towards the end of his term. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more market volatility based on rumors, guesses and people trying to get attention for themselves. But I wouldn’t expect them to tank like they did in 2008.Growth policies under wayThere are also some very pro-growth policies under way and more coming.Like it or not, regulatory oversight from the federal government has already been scaled back thanks to a bunch of executive orders and the dismantling of agencies. This will help business owners keep their eye on their businesses, rather than the federal government. More importantly, both the House and Senate are moving to debate and then finalize a number of tax decreases which will include extending or making permanent many of the tax benefits from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act as well potentially eliminating taxes on capital gains, overtime, social security and tips.All of this won’t happen, but some of it will and when it does consumers may have more in their pockets and businesses will enjoy a further long-term boost that should encourage more investment and growth.A cooling of inflation?The bond market thinks that inflation will cool down. That’s because bond yields have significantly decreased over the past few weeks. When inflation is expected to fall, so do yields. These traders think that – despite tariffs – there will be enough of a slowdown to dampen price increases and encourage the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates. Will the slowdown cause a recession? Maybe. But lower interest rates mean a lower cost of borrowing. It also helps reduce the government’s spending towards paying down debt.One big beneficiary of lower interest rates would be the residential real estate industry – which represents up to 18% of the US economy. Many homebuyers (and sellers) have been holding back due to higher interest rates. But now that bond yields are falling, so too are mortgage rates (which are also based on future inflation). In late 2023 the average mortgage rate was about 8%. Now it’s close to 6.5%. We’re getting close to a tipping point that could ignite this market. As we head into the spring and summer I would expect to see more buyers and sellers come out of hiding.I’m sure plenty of economists, academics and pundits will argue with these takes. The bottom line: don’t sell your stocks. Hold firm. History shows that, unless you speculate or get lucky with an isolated home run, investing in the broad stock market via mutual and index funds generally outpaces all other investments. If you have excess cash, consider putting more into these funds. Of course, consult a competent wealth adviser and evaluate your specific risks. But relax. You’ll be fine. More

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      Michigan autoworkers wary of Trump’s tariffs: ‘Playing poker with people’s lives’

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      The General Motors Flint Assembly plant is a hulking symbol of American auto industry might, a 5m-sq-ft factory stretching as far as the eye can see down Van Slyke Road, and it hums: three shifts almost daily crank out the Silverado truck, the automaker’s most popular product.The plant weathered decades of industrial disinvestment in Flint, a blue-collar city of about 80,000 in mid-Michigan, the nation’s auto capital. Flint Assembly remains an economic cornerstone of a Rust belt region filled with working-class swing voters who helped propel Donald Trump to his second term.The president did well here in part because he promised an industrial revival that will regenerate towns like Flint. On the campaign trail he promised tariffs would achieve this goal. This week the tariff war kicked into a higher gear. The reviews are mixed.Autoworkers, small business owners and residents here say tariffs could help Flint, but many aren’t comforted by what they characterized as Trump’s haphazard approach, higher prices on everyday goods and the prospect of middle-income folks becoming “collateral damage”.“Trump is playing poker, but he’s playing poker with people’s lives at this point,” said Chad Fabbro, financial secretary of United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 538 in Flint. Even the union is a house divided. The UAW president, Shawn Fain, supports tariffs, but Fabbro said many of the 5,000-strong rank and file at Flint Assembly see them as “bullshit”.Onshoring industry is a good idea, if well planned, Fabbro added, but an abrupt, full-scale tariff war is “not good for anyone because middle America is going to suffer”.Before Trump partly pulled back on Wednesday, his unprecedented trade war enacted at least 10% tariffs on nearly every country in the world last week, while hitting China, Taiwan and Vietnam with much higher rates. The war with China has escalated.There’s little disagreement about whether the tariffs would cause prices to increase for everyday goods like clothing, electronics and groceries – some estimate it could cost the average US household $3,800.In Flint, the debate seems to be: “Is the president’s political and economic gamble worth it?”The president’s supporters say “yes”, and have pushed variations of a message: any economic pain will be worth the benefits of a restructured world economy. Among them is Brian Pannebecker, a retired Ford employee who started Auto Workers for Trump.“It’s going to cause a little short-term pain, but we’re going to have to endure it for six months or a year, however long it takes,” he said last week. “The workers of this country have been enduring pain for decades as they closed plants down.”But among small business owners in downtown Flint, there’s some doubt about the idea of more pain in one of the nation’s poorest big cities – about 35% live in poverty.“The person who said that must be coming from a place of privilege because it is obvious that they’re going to be OK for the next year or so, but I think a lot of people are not in the same boat, so we have to be mindful of that,” Rebekah Hills, co-owner of Hills’ Cheese, said on Tuesday.Her shop imports about half of its product from countries such as the Netherlands, France and England – the cost of those products would go up 10% under Trump’s latest plan, or more if he changes his mind. “It really sucks because it’s small businesses that suffer the most,” Hills added.Frustration with stubbornly elevated prices – especially among foods – was largely behind a relatively strong Trump showing in 2024 in Genesee county, where Flint is located. He had lost to Biden and Hillary Clinton here by about 10% in the two previous elections, but closed the gap to 4% last year. Just north, in Saginaw county, also part of Michigan’s auto industry heartland, the president edged out Kamala Harris.Democrats in Michigan, some of whom are fiercely critical of free trade agreements, are calibrating their messaging with these things in mind. Among those who support tariffs is US representative Debbie Dingell, whose district near Detroit is home to many rank-and-file autoworkers.“I think tariffs are a tool in the toolbox so that we are competing on a level playing field with China, who subsidizes production, owns the companies and doesn’t pay a decent wage,” Dingell recently told WDET. “But it can’t be done chaotically.”Trump’s approach was damaging the economy, she said, but she also noted that 90% of the nation’s pharmaceuticals are imported, and onshoring that kind of production was a good idea. But, Dingell added, “you can’t do it overnight”.On Wednesday, just after Trump pulled back on most tariffs, the conservative-leaning Michigan political analyst Bill Ballenger said he wasn’t surprised by the abrupt announcement. The tariff rollout wasn’t going well for Republicans in Michigan or nationally, he said. It was more “too much, too soon” from the administration.“The public understands the tariffs and they get his overall goal and mission, but the way he’s implementing them seems incoherent,” Ballenger said. However, what that may mean in 19 months when the next elections happen is anyone’s guess, he added.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWill Flint be OK?Alan Jackson, a retiree from an auto supplier, echoed the president’s line. “Why does China and everyone else get to take advantage of us? Why do they get to screw us? I’m glad someone is standing up to that.”Jackson dismissed the fears of higher prices and economic damage. “People will be fine – it’s worth it,” he added.But polls showed a major drop in Trump’s approval rating, and in downtown Flint people are worried.The Flint farmers’ market, in a repurposed newspaper printing press building, is a local economic hub where a half-million people annually shop for everything from locally grown produce to local jerky.But many here partly rely on imports. Tony Vu, a restaurateur and leader in the local food system, is about to reopen his Vietnamese restaurant, MaMang. The uncertainty is generating fear of supply chain shortages, Vu said: “It seems like deja vu, but with no end in sight.”The tariffs especially take a toll on south-east Asian, Latino and other chefs of color importing goods that can’t be produced here – avocados don’t grow in Flint, Vu noted, and Michigan’s growing season is only five months long. Imports are essential.A case of fish sauce, a staple of Vietnamese cuisine, went from about $82 to $100 just on the speculation that tariffs were increasing, highlighting another problem – some companies use disruptions to the economy as an excuse to raise prices, even if they don’t need to.“It’s going to take an industry that already operates on thin margins and is really hard, and it’s going to create more pressure,” Vu said. “If businesses are not quick enough to adapt, then it’s going to be a death blow.”At d’Vine Wines, with shelves full of bottles from France and Italy, manager Aaron Larson said on Tuesday he was not totally sure what to make of the tariffs yet, but he doesn’t trust Trump. Fabbro, of the UAW, pointed to massive increases in Canadian aluminum prices that were a threat to Michigan’s robust craft brewery industry. Meanwhile, his neighbors where he lives in rural Vassar, a few miles north of Flint, grow soybeans they sell to China.About 40% of US soybean exports go to China, which just hit them with an 84% tariff on all US goods (later raised to 125%). They’re scared, Fabbro said.‘That’s how capitalism works’Auto Workers for Trump’s Pannebecker said that corporations should “absorb” some increased costs, and added that the unions are trying to have it both ways – they want higher wages but they want cars to be affordable. Something might have to give, he said.“The market will settle itself out because that’s how capitalism works,” he said.The president’s supporters trust his judgment.“He’s a shrewd businessman, right? That’s why people vote for him, so I say let’s give it a chance, but if the cost of everything goes up then maybe he has to pull back at some point,” said Russ, an autoworker at the farmers’ market who would only give his first name.At the UAW local hall across from the Flint Assembly plant, Fabbro isn’t convinced, and fears layoffs. “It’ll only be a few years? OK, don’t feed your kids for a few years. Sell your boat and home and everything you’ve worked for because you’re willing to be a bargaining chip,” he said. More