I just finished listening to part of an interview with a Wall St. trader on CNBC. I don't know who he is and I didn't hear it all. Apparently, today Trump has tweeted (lol) a trade war on Japan. Japan announced plans to build a Lexus factory in Baja, Mexico, and Trump said build it here or face a steep offsetting border tax on every car Toyota tries to sell into the US.
What was most interesting, though, was that the trader said the reason so many car makers have spent billions on new plants in Mexico is because they can ship all over the world with no restrictions and without paying-------something. I think it was the VAT but was called something I didn't recognize.
The interviewer expressed surprise and then the trader said, "oh yea, like US car makers can't ship at all into South America, and when they ship to Europe they face an automatic 10% entry fee. That's why everyone wants to build plants in Mexico. They get special considerations. "
That's the first I've heard of a flat 10% entry fee when shipping into the EU, but he stated it as a fact.
It's going to get interesting. The fact that Trump tweets something like this, something with profound implications just cracks me up. Maybe it should scare me, lol.
It makes me think of that Netflix series, The Man In the High Tower. I think that was the name. |
