Tariffs have become a major issue in the current US election, with former president Donald Trump claiming his plans to put a 10-20 percent tax on impo

If Trump gets elected, get your tech buying done asap

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2024-11-01 23:00:18

Tariffs have become a major issue in the current US election, with former president Donald Trump claiming his plans to put a 10-20 percent tax on imports, rising to 60 percent with China, would fill government coffers for tax cuts and make American manufacturing great again. His rival Kamala Harris called the plans a ‘sales tax on the American people.'

Up until the beginning of the 20th Century, tariffs raised a huge amount of government revenue and protected nascent US industries, although the latter might be overstated.

Trump's argument is that offshoring by manufacturers has robbed Americans of jobs, thus by imposing tariffs, US manufacturers will be forced to bring those factories home, and foreign competitors will be priced out of the domestic market. Some find this theory dangerously optimistic.

On the technology front, there is more gloom than optimism, however, since some key parts of the technological supply chain aren't made in the US at all and there's little prospect of that changing any time soon.