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/Xezshibole 1d ago

There are constitutional methods. They're known as Memorandum of Understanding. MoUs. Non binding agreements that typically handle services, licensing, regulations.

Not so much goods (food, steel, semiconductors,) which is in the federal realm and are all subject to tariffs.

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/Rxyro 1d ago

So we’ll fly Canadian lumber in and Meta ads out, like the Berlin Airlift