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What the hell will Trump's imposition of crazy tariffs on the world mean?

 

Por Sidney Hey

This was a long time coming. So I told a Japanese friend of mine who imports vans and cars into Australia and who, with Donald Trump's crazy tariff measures, will turn his business into more of an expense than a profit. The acted out presentation of a Trump emulating Moses with his tablets of the law are a demonstration of the deterioration in the US.

Just look at the tariffs imposed on the Heard and Mac Donald Islands where there is no one, and what the big island gets will be much tougher. The government in Canberra is not happy about these announcements either, although like good doormats they won't say anything. But how much will it affect the economy of ordinary Australians?

But the big island is just one of many who will be hurt by this. Quite rightly the ordinary Aussie could claim everything he pays to maintain a military force and intelligence facilities that are in the service of the US and on top of that he has to be hung by the delusional aspirations of a guy like Trump. Even to some extent the Americans themselves will end up shaking their heads at the fact that they will not be able to access certain foreign products for the simple reason that their president has put into effect his own commandments to make America great again.

But once again, the people of the people do not count here. This manoeuvre is only designed to benefit the big players, obviously Americans and perhaps some of their British cousins, but no further. Australians in particular, despite being part of the Commonwealth, are the hooligans in the family. The little dilemma that these geniuses with Trump at the helm have not spared a thought for is how the other trading and political blocs of the globe such as BRICS+ will respond.

In addition to all this, let us not neglect the geopolitical situation and the plans that Washington has been hatching with Tel Aviv and some European partners to launch an attack on Iran under the pretext of its nuclear programme, something that would undoubtedly involve Australia in its proximity to protect the air base on Diego Garcia Island, a strategic point that the Americans use to launch their operations in Asia.

Undoubtedly if that happens, it would mean the necessary cooperation of NATO through its electronic intelligence area using as a point of support and assistance its facilities in Singapore. If that happens, it would mean that Trump's whole spiel against the Atlantic organisation was a public relations smokescreen.

What will happen if this stupidity is carried out? Iran is a member of the BRICS and also has bilateral agreements with Russia and China so there will be retaliation and not necessarily direct retaliation. In the event, the Iranians have over the past five years upgraded their fighter jets (many modernised with Russian avionics) and modernised their anti-aircraft fighter systems with Russian technology that could wreak havoc in a B-2 strategic bomber operation. It doesn't even need to be a war for this to happen. The price hikes and restrictions that Trump's tariffs will create will lead to retaliation from competitors, especially China, which is of commercial importance to the US and the world.

What Donald Trump has done is to deepen the war with his trade competitors and extend it to the rest of the world by involving all countries as if they were mere subjects who must pay obeisance to the US. It is one more step in the war that Washington started in Ukraine against the Russian Federation and the prelude to the one it could be planning for China under the familiar argument of defending the island of Taiwan.

If China starts to implement its own tariff measures against US goods, we know very well that Washington will not sit idly by and, accustomed to trying to accommodate things in its interests by all sorts of stratagems, especially clandestine ones, will try to sabotage the Chinese market using dirty means.

For this purpose, CIA guys, MI6 and special teams should already be operating in every Asian port (especially Hong Kong) on the shipping lanes so that accidents will magically happen.

Undoubtedly one of the objectives of the Americans will be to coerce their clients in the hemisphere, just as they do in Latin America, where today they have the sympathy of some hilarious governments such as Argentina's, led by a guy with severe nervous problems and a sick narcissism who, because of this neurotic following, will drag his country into a bottomless ravine. The immediate fall of Argentine papers and bonds on the stock markets, especially on Wall Street, put into perspective what can happen to the country if it remains subject to Washington's political cable.

For now this has only just begun. What this guy has imposed on partners and enemies alike will have consequences in the medium term. It seems that Trump is playing that stupid American game they call ‘chicken’ to see who will give in to the pressure first. He is very confident that his country will prevail in this crisis induced by him, of course, if the dirty tricks he will implement against his competitors are successful and if the rest of the world allows him to do so.