Originally published at: Trump’s New ‘Forced Labor’ Tariffs Were Set Under Sham Pretenses - TPM – Talking Points Memo
President Donald Trump has made clear from very early in his second term that he intends to reorder global trade by instilling permanent tariffs. More than a year later, his government has proven relentless in its attempt. Compounding the growing inflationary pressures from his ill-conceived war in Iran, Trump on Friday set a new round…
Old King Stole wants to combat “forced labor”?
Well, lookee here…
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I’d love to see an article about the mechanics of tariffs.
A farmer in Brazil makes a deal with a distributor to sell them his grapes. The farmer harvests the grapes and sends them to the distributor, who puts them on a ship to the US bound for Whole Foods. The boat arrives and a Trumper goes through all the crates (???). The Trumper declares the red grapes are subject to a tariff, so he demands 10% of (???), which he puts in his pocket (???) until the end of his shift, when he then takes the tariffs to a federal credit union (???) where it’s deposited into a Treasury account that Mike Johnson reconciles every budget period (???).
I mean, I understand the price of green grapes at Whole Foods is unchanged, but red grapes go up in the store because… ???
Or maybe Whole Foods unpacks the crate at their store and realizes it has red grapes that are under tariff because a Trumper called the store to inform them of the 10% tariff that’s due on red grapes. So, Whole Foods tells the employee to add 10% to the cost of the red grapes, then some MAGA dude slithers into the store when few witnesses are around and collects an envelope containing the tariff payment?
I need help.
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Pro Publica also has had a series of articles on forced labor and H-2A farmworkers visas
Many of these tariff affected countries are incredulous, proclaiming that they have stronger labor laws than the USA.
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It’s difficult to understand how another nation could still be incredulous about anything this bag of shit does now. He is a fat hose under pressure whipping around. No rules and unbound by logic or laws. Everyone knows that at this point.
Why are so many intelligent people, even whole governments, unable to get in front of or disarm him? Because 1) he is so abnormal. The literal reason he lives is to hurt others. And 2) he offers the chance for other damaged people to join in and make $ doing it. The cult is so big and powerful now that it’s making its own weather, as they say. We are pretty much in N Korea in many ways.
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Tariffs are paid by the “Importer of record.” Basically, one of the entities in that chain from Brazilian grape farmer to the red grapes at the grocery store says they will take responsibility for ensuring those grapes follow all the appropriate legal requirements for import, including paying the tariffs.
This mostly operates on an honor system, where the Importer of record self-declares the goods and their value to CBP and pays the tariff amount they self-calculate using tariff schedules. CBP does spot check some imported goods to confirm they match the submitted documentation, but they don’t have enough staff to check more than a small fraction. Compliance is based on fear of the civil and/or criminal penalities one could be subject to for misrepresenting the imported goods or failing to pay the required tariffs.
Obviously, this system is ripe for tariff evasion, primarily through “classifying” imported goods as either under non-tariffed good categories or as lower value goods. That wasn’t worth the effort when tariffs were in the single digits for most countries, but with double-digit tariffs we see those practices more frequently.
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In the late 1980s when Tony Anaya was Governor of NM, the State OSHA program got two important laws passed to protect field workers. One was to ban the use of short handled hoes which were preferred by farmers because it forced the workers to work stooped over. Thaat way they could see that anyone who was standing up was not working. The workers called the sawed-off hoes el mano Diablo, the hand of the devil. Oh! The farmers were upset that production might fall off and GD it, how dare effen bureaucrats regulate farming. The second, called Field sanitation reqquired Clean drinking water in clean cups, porta potties and hand-washing stations. That way there was less shall we say, mudslide lettuce. Again, the protests of financial ruin and legislativ overreach rang out. Federal OSHA wanted the legislation but was subject to Congressional pushback. NM passed them and the Feds adopted them into the CFR.
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Exactly! The Rs really have no problem with forced labor. In fact I think they yearn for it. It goes hand in hand with denying education. In the article above about what era different groups see in their nostalgia, I couldn’t think it was off base thinking 80s or 50s for Repukes. I think it’s pre-Reconstruction. I think they are jonesing to be rid of Latinos so they can force Blacks to be farm workers. I know that’s harsh, but oh well.
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I suspect forced labor as the goal includes people on the far left, the far right, somewhere in the middle, White as well as POC. Anyone and everyone not valued by the billionaire class. The notion that some of the above are more valued than the rest is but a propaganda tactic. Only those deemed useful to the economic elite will matter; and only as long as they are useful. Those of us who enjoy privilege because we aren’t impoverished, are light skinned, may have to decide whether to rely on remaining privileged as subjects of empire, or to choose power of people working to further a democracy.
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The people who love to talk about the Laffer curve to justify low income tax on the wealthy are probably less eager to talk about it right now.
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So let me see if I have this right…. Forced labor is good when it applies to pregnant women, domestic agriculture, prison camps, and ICE detention centers. But only if we or our proxies are doing the forcing, otherwise it’s bad, but is probably okay if the country has a dictator Trump likes, but definitely not if they don’t curry favor with Eric and Donald Jr.
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Everyone, consider making some signs to put up in your neighborhood, or even in Republican leaning neighborhoods or on power polls that say: “Tariffs are a TAX on YOU!” I guarantee that messaging will make even hard core Republican voters hesitant about voting for Republicans.
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Trump is frustrated that the allies he frequently insults and disparages and has previously hit with tariffs aren’t jumping in to help him with his war of choice, so he resorts to his favorite weapon.
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So why do people like vought, oh, never mind, nothing these sick effs do makes any real sense. The bullying and racism and grifting and killing and vengeance serves no real purpose, and if they think its going to bring on the end times of their biblical wet dreams they’re going to be deeply disappointed.
Either they just so poison the planet that there are no holes deep enough or remote enough to hide the devastation of climate change, or they get “lucky” enough to catch a ride on one of Musk’s or Bezos’ colony ships and find out their billions means nothing, and they will have to work their asses off to survive, scrabbling and scraping to get by just like everyone else.
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Wouldn’t be easier to identify policy items not established under a sham or chicanery…?
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Thank you so much for your reply. Now, even I can guess how tariffs are “ripe” for evasion.
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