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Hardware hacker Bunnie Huang has written concrete details in his blog about how the new US tariffs are anti-maker and will promote offshoring. However, it is not quite too late ... yet. With the right pushback it might be possible to salvage the situation.
The new 25% tariffs announced by the USTR, set to go into effect on July 6th, are decidedly anti-Maker and ironically pro-offshoring. I've examined the tariff lists (List 1 and List 2), and it taxes the import of basic components, tools and sub-assemblies, while giving fully assembled goods a free pass. The USTR's press release is careful to mention that the tariffs "do not include goods commonly purchased by American consumers such as cellular telephones or televisions."
[...] There is a sliver of good news in all of this for American Makers. The list of commodities targeted in the trade war is not yet complete. The "List 2" items – which include all manner of microchips, motors, and plastics (such as 3D printer PLA filament and acrylic sheets for laser cutting) that are building blocks for small businesses and Makers – have yet to be ratified. The USTR website has indicated in the coming weeks they will disclose a process for public review and comment.
(Score: 1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 23 2018, @07:57AM (3 children)
Just pay the extra 3 cents for your fucking LEDs, you tightwads. Sheesh, I'm not well-off in any sense of the word but if I want or need to build something, I shell out the fucking pennies.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @08:47AM (1 child)
This is not just an issue for a few 'makers' that are building up one-off or small run projects. What this does is make 'Made in USA' products using overseas sourced components (which is close to pretty much everything electronic) that much more expensive. With these taxes on the raw components, the bill of materials cost increases, and the final sale cost with it.
So now the products that are currently made in USA, but use a lot of these components, will be even less competitive when compared to competing products 'Made in not-USA'.
Making some fully imported consumer products 'exempt' is a huge fail for many local US manufacturers, not just a few 'makers'.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 23 2018, @09:01AM
And deals with overseas problems like counterfeit ICs which repeatedly fail in your life-critical or mission-critical applications. There's a thing called cost-benefit analysis, you can even do it with 1998 Excel and linear regression. And yet, despite being to central to many American businesses, the Chinks still haven't figured it out. Hmm, prices are going up and quality is getting worse, perhaps we'd better find suppliers in geographical locations more friendly to us, with a reasonable cost-benefit?
(Score: 4, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday June 23 2018, @10:24AM
I know you're too young to remember this but we already covered this [youtube.com] back when I was a kid. Tariffs are not the way to go except using the threat of them as a deterrent against government subsidized industries in other nations. Not because they're "unfair" or anything but because they just don't work.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.