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39 comments

  • I wish they'd just call it what it is - import duty.

    I work in Chlor-Alkali Electrolysis and some of our biggest customers in the US run their electrolysers for water purification. I don't know their market share but they purify the majority of US water between them.

    They buy everything to maintain the electrolysers from us. Nuts, bolts, washers, every last component, as each component is tried and tested to work in our electrolysers through decades of design and testing.

    One customer had an arrival today and suddenly had a bill for about 40k more than they were expecting due to the foolish tariffs and the changing of of product classifications on the USHTS. If they buy their spares elsewhere the warranty on their electrolyser becomes invalid, and - as I've seen time and again - cheaper, untested spares will usually result in a catastrophic failure somewhere down the line.

    This is just one example, but old moron is messing with all kinds of key industries with his fiddling, and the only people paying are the importers and, eventually, the general public.

    Our costs have not changed and we sell at the same price that we are contracted to, but now the companies that purify US water have hundreds of thousands of extra import duty each year if this comedy continues, and they can't just pull out and start again as they have invested tens of millions and there is no suitable US company who can do what we do without decades of investment and research.

    Maybe the Fantascist will magic this industry into existence, but it will cost at least twice what we can do it for when it is eventually ready. The companies will undoubtedly charge more for the products they make to compensate, and the US public will foot the bill.

    These tariffs hurt the US the most.

    • What's wild is that they can't even plan for this. If they'd had 5 years of lead time maybe they could have transitioned to an American-made alternative. Maybe your company could have opened an American manufacturing plant or something.

      The way things are now, the tariff is likely to change between the time they place the order with you and the time the item arrives. If they could somehow delay delivery for another week, maybe they could avoid being charged the tariff. Or, maybe the tariff will double.

      Even if tariffs were a good idea (and for the most part, they're not), the chaotic vibes-based way they're being implemented is so incredibly destructive.

39 comments