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posted by janrinok on Saturday June 23 2018, @06:58AM   Printer-friendly
from the self-inflicted dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @08:49AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @08:49AM (#697158)

    A 25 % tariff is not going to move production back to the US. China wants to manufacture stuff with motivated and efficient workers, and few rules about safety, environment, overtime, etc. If I want to have some prototypes CNCed, US shops treat me like dirt because it's a small job, and they charge an arm and a leg. If I put the drawings on Alibaba, a bunch of companies want to do the work, and quality is decent.

  • (Score: 2, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 23 2018, @09:08AM (7 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday June 23 2018, @09:08AM (#697160) Homepage

    ...Until you find out at the last minute, if you even bothered to measure dimensions yourself when it got to you, that your mid-grade alloy is full of pits and voids and the runout spans 5 standard deviations from the tolerances outlined in the drawing.

    That's okay if you have a fetish for proto-futuristic metal caveman clubs. Not okay for anything else. Welcome to the bronze-age, my friend. Except that I doubt the Chinese even know how to deal with the galling and other characteristics of bronze.

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by janrinok on Saturday June 23 2018, @10:00AM (6 children)

      by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 23 2018, @10:00AM (#697165) Journal

      The quality of electronic components that are manufactured in China can be just as good as you are prepared to pay. Sure, you can select budget items that come at a few cents each or, in this case, circuit boards with pits, voids and measured in some obscure unit or other. Alternatively, you can pay a little more but still a very competitive price and obtain what you want at the quality you want. There is a reason that much of what the US buys is made in China. It is made to a price and, if you are prepared to pay a decent price (but still much cheaper than it costs to buy US manufactured using US components) then you can get what you want. These tariffs will hurt US manufacturers at least as much as it will the foreign suppliers. Have you tried selling your Harley Davidson motorcycles, Levi jeans, Southern Comfort or a host of other products made in the USA in Europe recently? Tariffs go both ways you know...

      • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 23 2018, @10:51AM (2 children)

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday June 23 2018, @10:51AM (#697170) Homepage

        Levi jeans suck. I have bought a few, recently, when Boston Dynamics started requiring pants on the job and the same pair of shorts I was washing in the sink every night wasn't going to cut it. The stress on the belt loops in jeans sold in America causes holes in only a few months of use. Pretty bad for Denim. Previously, it took years of wear to inflict the same stress on better jeans, including Levis' jeans. Don't even get me started on Chinese-made Harleys. As for SoCo, it is a tasty liquor and especially so when combined with orange soda, but my drink of choice is cheap Gallo wine. [gallo.com]

        • (Score: 3, Informative) by janrinok on Saturday June 23 2018, @01:33PM

          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 23 2018, @01:33PM (#697187) Journal

          Well that will be a great comfort to the workers from those companies if, and when, they are made redundant.

        • (Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @05:57PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @05:57PM (#697279)

          I don't know what kind of faggot follows you around down-voting, but nothing you say is wrong. I too hate the holes that develop just above the back pockets, like they were designed from engineers to have all the stress of pants focus on that little area to get a hole within 12 months. Also the jean thickness now a days is akin to that of toilet paper. Sure they seem smoother to wear, like a pair of silk garments, but honestly if I actually worked a physical job in them, they would disintegrate.

      • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Saturday June 23 2018, @03:09PM (2 children)

        by Nerdfest (80) on Saturday June 23 2018, @03:09PM (#697203)

        I think most of those tariffs you mention are retaliatory, for the latest round of silliness ... not sure about the jeans though. I know we do make Levis jeans in Canada.

        • (Score: 2) by janrinok on Saturday June 23 2018, @04:37PM (1 child)

          by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday June 23 2018, @04:37PM (#697224) Journal

          I agree, the European tariffs are retaliatory.

          And I expect that the tariffs currently in place against China will also provoke an additional response, despite the reasons that the US Government claims they have been imposed.

          • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @05:52PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 23 2018, @05:52PM (#697273)

            Irrelevant. To your typical Trump voter, he's stickin' it to the man and givin' the other fella Hell! USA USA USA!