I agree. We can't control China's behavior but the tariffs do a good job of controlling our own behavior since they punish us more then China. So if you are single sourcing everything in China you will be punished more then those who have more sources. Challenge is the next President will back right off and we will be where we were before.

I'm not sure I support the wider set of tariffs (I really don't know a lot about the impact of that), but I totally support the banning of buying major telecom equipment from foreign countries.

Not to worry: looking at the abysmal democratic lineup right now it seems like the next president will be the same as the current one.

"since they punish us more then China. "

No they don't.

Most goods from China can be sourced elsewhere, moreover, America has the surpluses to handle some extra cost.

China doesn't. They are at the end of their last boom, and in trouble, it's really bad, and this comes at a bad time.

This is why China's response to Trump's most recent massive tariffs are much smaller.

The US has the upper hand in this, though not blatantly.

The sticking point right now is verification: both sides agree that China should stop with the IP theft, but the US does not believe China will actually do anything after the agreement has been signed, and so wants China to change it's laws. China sees this as a breach of sovereignty. So there's a huge face saving problem on China side, and to some extent on the US side with Trump.

I think they will work it out actually, a deal will be signed, China will take 'some steps' but they won't really care, Trump will be gone in a few years. I don't think that much will change in the end.

But these tariffs are really bad for China.

We don't really source much except cheap labor from China. On the surface it seems like the Chinese make the bulk of the profit off something like an iPhone but really they make very little. In fact China knows this, which is why they've been tariffing iPhones even if they are "exported" from China back to China.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/china-makes-8-46-from-an-iphone...

iphone在中国没有关税 只有增值税

Why do they smuggle them across HK then? Why is the iPhone sales price in China higher? On Apple's website currently the Chinese iPhone Xs is about $200 USD more expensive. Is this just tax inclusive?

Wow that is crazy, I don't usually meet people who like higher taxes.

Are you sure you aren't misunderstanding the situation?

I really only have one problem with these tariffs. That Trump didn't get our allies to also raise their tariffs against China.