r/bayarea • u/Front-Resident-5554 • 1d ago

Politics & Local Crime California to Negotiate Trade With Other Countries to Bypass Trump Tariffs

https://www.newsweek.com/california-newsom-trade-trump-tariffs-2055414
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u/MD_Yoro 1d ago

How is this possible as a state of USA.

I thought legally, no state can enter trade negotiations with any foreign country. Only the federal government has that authority.

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u/kokopelleee 1d ago

By law, it is not possible.

But that's irrelevant given that the current administration has made it clear that they are not required to follow the law.

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u/MD_Yoro 1d ago

Okay, then what is stopping the federal government from just seizing control of California state office by force?

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u/NewUserWhoDisAgain 1d ago

You mean declare martial law? Nothing? Just like there's nothing stopping Newsom from saying "look at new opportunities to expand trade" "

Its essentially meaningless.

My guess is that its to provoke some absolutely lunatic out of pocket response from DC regarding this.

Besides its only illegal if someone does something about it. See: Current Admin

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u/kokopelleee 1d ago

nothing.

Nothing is stopping it.

The entire united states government is based on the honor system. We are told there are "checks and balances" but those only exist if each branch honors them. As we are very clearly seeing, Executive branch can do whatever they want. Judicial can make rulings, but they have zero enforcement authority.

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u/ShoulderGoesPop 1d ago

Optics. A lot of politics is all about optics. That would probably be too far extreme for the majority of the country to allow at least at this current moment.

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u/IHateLayovers 1d ago

The largest National Guard being the California National Guard.

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u/runsongas 1d ago

except under 10 USC, they can be activated and subordinated to the US Army and Air Force, hence why guard units were activated and sent to Iraq/Afghanistan during the WoT. They aren't strictly a state militia.

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u/IHateLayovers 1d ago

And the Guard can be mobilized by the State.

I'm a Guardsman now, former active duty.

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u/runsongas 1d ago

and that's the trillion dollar question, if both Gavin and Trump try to mobilize the CA NG against the other, who will they obey.

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u/IHateLayovers 1d ago

We'll see. I'm a company grade officer. Former active current Natty G.

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u/MD_Yoro 1d ago

I highly doubt the National Guard is going to go against the U.S. military or even have the capability if they tried

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u/IHateLayovers 1d ago

The NG is the U.S. military.

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u/MD_Yoro 1d ago

You sure? I was told the NG are the old state militias that states used to have and that state governors have control over NG for most situations

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u/IHateLayovers 1d ago

I'm a former active duty Army officer current Natty G officer. I know what I'm talking about. I live this, you read about it.

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u/dontich 1d ago

As dumb as trump is idk he would order an invasion of California

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u/runsongas 1d ago

I definitely believe he would if Newsome escalated it into something directly challenging federal authority

It would be a total Eric Cartman respec muh authoriteh tantrum

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u/Xezshibole 1d ago edited 1d ago

There are constitutional methods. They're known as Memorandum of Understanding. MoUs.

State regulations, licenses, university admissions, can all be changed to coincidentally accept more of the other country.

The state for example could direct its famed UC to accept more foreign students of a certain country. Wouldn't be "fair" to an aspiring CA student, certainly, but between that and getting slapped with retaliatory tariffs, making his/her financial situation and entire life harder, that's a pretty good deal.

State could change its license standards, or more likely just outright recognize another country's standards as equivalent to its own.

Say, recognizing that Danish engineering license is equivalent and thereby valid in California. Allows Danish engineering firms the opportunity to bid for work in California without as pressing a need to acquire Californian licenses.

Recognizing French businesses as "Californian" in contract bids, providing preferential treatment to their businesses over out of state options say from, Florida.

Considering the state has a lot of projects with substantial funding behind them, this may actually be enough leverage to redirect this retaliatory tariff elsewhere and away from CA.

These are all state regulations, state contract bidding, state licensing, etc. All state decisionmaking that can be changed to coincidentally provide business opportunities.

This is of course entirely voluntary and coincidental. MoUs do not have a legal framework to enforce the terms on the other. Both parties coincidentally and voluntarily choose to change their standards that just so happen to fit the other's, choose to mark certain licenses as equivalent to their own, choose to target other areas of the US instead of CA for retaliatory tariffs.

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u/runsongas 1d ago

and then federal money gets cut from CA, what's the plan then? secede and lose the 2nd American Civil War?

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u/MD_Yoro 1d ago

California is a net contributor to the federal tax revenue.

We put out more money than we receive.

We can 100% just run on state and local taxes assuming we can stop paying federal taxes.

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u/runsongas 1d ago

which would be in a secession situation, but good luck with the state coming out of that unscathed

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u/MD_Yoro 1d ago

Wouldn’t it be secession to be making deals with foreign countries as a state too?

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u/PvesCjhgjNjWsO4vwOOS 1d ago

Secession is secession. Making deals with foreign nations (or imposing tariffs on other states, as some have mentioned here) without the consent of Congress is a violation of Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution.

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u/runsongas 1d ago

probably just some Arrested Development style light treason, better check with Barry Zuckerkorn first

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u/Xezshibole 1d ago

Work off the state and local taxes?

Considering Trump intends to further cut federal, it's free game for state and local to pick that up and thereby maintain the state/local services in the inevitable deterioration of federal funding/services.

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u/runsongas 1d ago

there is no way the state could run off just state and local taxes, already a huge deficit even with federal funds coming in

unless if you are thinking that the state starts keeping FICA/SS which has a snowball's chance in hell of being ignored by Trump

the only road any escalation leads down is to Trump sends federal troops into CA and declares martial law

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u/Xezshibole 1d ago edited 1d ago

That federal government's budget deficit is entirely from federal legislature's stagnation, from Republicans unwilling to cut popular services yet wantonly cutting taxes, to Democrats unwilling to restore tax rates to pay for services they're protecting.

The state government doesn't have that problem since 2013, when it acquired supermajority. It's not in debt, and only really ever runs into a very short deficit when the stock market tanks. Something it consistently fixes by the next year.

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u/MD_Yoro 1d ago

Interesting, thanks for the information

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u/FlingFlamBlam 1d ago

It's legal (or, to be more precise: legality is not relevant) because the USA can't tell other countries what to do. If those other countries want to have friendly relations with only specific parts of the USA, they're free to do that. CA leaders can't sign deals on behalf of the entire USA. But the leaders of countries can unilaterally decide to conduct their affairs in a way that benefits blue states if that's what they wish to do.