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/Mono_KS Foreign 1d ago

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

On the other, everything Trump does is unconstitutional and has no legal ground.

So fuck it.

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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/NattyBumppo 1d ago

  a state subsidy on particular products

So the state ends up paying the tariff to the federal government (albeit indirectly)? Sounds like a pretty shitty deal for California.

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u/LackingUtility 1d ago

Sounds that way unless the savings on the foreign tariffs are worth more. For example, if California subsidizes the import tariffs to the tune of $20B, but manages to export an additional $50B of goods they wouldn't have been able to, they're going to come out ahead.

Yes, it's not ideal, but what's your solution? Shove the almonds up your ass and hope you get milk?

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u/NattyBumppo 1d ago edited 1d ago

Import the goods through California ports and don't pay the tariffs at all. Find a loophole. Fight fire with fire.

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u/LackingUtility 1d ago

So just ignore federal taxes and hope that Trump never comes after you? Not sure that's going to work.

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u/Alocasia_Sanderiana 1d ago

Depends on how you do it. If we go back in time, this would probably look something like the state opening its own port under the protection of state forces.