While the decision to impose massive tariffs to handle trade deficits is either idiotic (as not addressing the reasons for said deficit) or Trump’s customary approach to negocoations, the figure of the increase is even absurder, as it it is exactly (some evaluation of) the country-specific trade deficit by the value of its exports to the US. Bon sang, mais c’est bien sûr!!! As put by Paul Krugman, “there’s so much wrong with this approach that it’s hard to know where to star.” Divided by two to add nonsense to the absurdity. And the White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai posted a math formula a wee bit too late after the reasoning had been spotted. Where elasticity conveniently cancels with “passthrough” (a concept I had never met before)!
Another degree of non-sense is reached when considering the tariffs differ between territories of the same country, like these Australian territories near Antarctica where no people live (unless they export penguin guano?!). In the case of France, oversea departments get differential treatments. For instance, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane and French Polynesia face only a 10% rise, while La Réunion get a 37% additional tariff(for exporting vanilla?!) and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, east of Newfoundland are imposed with a 50% new tariff! Since all these territories are part of France, separating their imports and exports from the mainland is making no sense whatsoever.
