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/throwaway267ahdhen 1d ago

No this is completely illegal. Newsom apparently has no idea what he’s talking about and neither does this guy.

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u/AwarenessReady3531 California 1d ago edited 1d ago

Newsom’s approach, as per the article, is to advocate for California-made products to be excluded from retaliatory tariffs imposed by other countries. This means he is lobbying for federal support in negotiations, not independently creating exemptions. This is legal and within his role as a state leader advocating for his state’s economic interests, but it does not mean he can directly influence or bypass federal tariffs.

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u/Wild_Harvest 1d ago

If I understand, then California usually has a budget surplus, couldn't they use that surplus to pay the import duties as much as they could to ease the burden on California based businesses and consumers? Could be a way to incentivize companies to do business in CA and help ease the burden on taxpayers, too. Lets CA lower the cost of living, comparatively, to the rest of the nation since their prices won't be going up as much, and that would be a big boon to their local economies.

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u/AwarenessReady3531 California 1d ago edited 1d ago

There are various legal concerns, but the big one is the Commerce Clause, which means it's likely that the state would get sued by the federal government because subsidizing tariffs to help in-state importers could be seen as nullifying federal tariffs. Then there's also the problem that deciding which businesses or industries receive subsidies would be politically complex and could lead to accusations of favoritism, and they WOULD have to pick and choose, because even with a budget surplus, they'd not be able to cover tariffs for every single item we import. Basically, it's probably too messy. Better to focus on the legal venues that are already well-established. You can get far going down that route, and if they take this job on competently, they'll save California a lot of trouble in the next 4 years.