r/politics • u/sweatycat New York • 1d ago

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/LackingUtility 1d ago

On one hand, this is unconstitutional and has no legal ground.

Depends. It's not my area of expertise, but at least one way to do it that would be completely constitutional would be to convince other countries to exempt specific products - that just happen to primarily be made in California - from their tariffs. For example, China imposes a 34% tariff on American agricultural products except almonds, which it exempts. Good for California, which produces 80% of the world's almonds. Totally constitutional, as it's not some sort of per-state treaty.

I'm not sure how California would do the reverse. Perhaps a state subsidy on particular products (that it primarily imports from China)? That would be legal.

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u/gplfalt 1d ago

but at least one way to do it that would be completely constitutional would be to convince other countries to exempt specific products

Politely asking why the hell we would do that? We'd still be getting tariffs and that would likely bring down more on us

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u/LackingUtility 1d ago

This would led Californian farmers continue to sell almonds overseas without drying up demand.

And Trump can't impose state-specific tariffs. And to the best of my knowledge, there's nothing California imports that no other state also imports.

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u/gplfalt 1d ago

You're saying reasons why it would be good for California but that wasn't the question I was asking.

I was asking why the ever tucking hell would a nation risk further tariffs and Trump retaliation just to lend a hand to California?

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u/KonigSteve 1d ago

Perhaps a state subsidy on particular products (that it primarily imports from China)?

He literally said the reason here.

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u/Statcat2017 1d ago

No sane country would make this deal because then Trump would just go "ok then you can double your tarriff".

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u/Proper_Ad5627 1d ago

Brother nobody gives a shit about trumps tariffs lol, if california wants to trade with the world, they will come begging -

Everyone is just signing new agreements that exclude America, sure it’ll take a few years but in 5-6 we will never need to trade at scale with the US again, new factories and plants are being built all around the world as we speak

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u/Amish_guy_with_WiFi 1d ago

It's literally a trade war. Countries are going to go back and forth on raising tarriffs until one budges or implodes. America will probably implode since that's what Trump (Putin) wants.

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u/Proper_Ad5627 1d ago

Brother nobody gives a shit about trumps tariffs lol, if california wants to trade with the world, they will come begging -

Everyone is just signing new agreements that exclude America, sure it’ll take a few years but in 5-6 we will never need to trade at scale with the US again, new factories and plants are being built all around the world as we speak

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u/gplfalt 1d ago

That is very much not enough to risk further tariffs on the federal side. Like not at all. Especially for countries like Canada.

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u/tyyreaunn 1d ago

Presumably Newsom is offering something in return - e.g., the government of California will buy Product X exclusively from your country (regardless of US federal tariffs imposed on it) in exchange for your country providing preferential tariff treatment to US exports originating from California.

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u/sniper1rfa 1d ago

Because california is by far the biggest market in the states? 10% of the US lives in california.