Good morning 🌧️🌪️. A typhoon passed through 🇭🇰& it's gloomy outside, just like the mood of markets after:
a) JPO said hedgy words "act as approprioate"
b) Carney speech on the dollar & digital $
c) China raising tariffs to 30% from 25% on 75bn
d) Trump raised 300bn tariffs to 15%
Facts of tariffs so far:
a) China imports from the US roughly 120bn & tariffed 110bn so got 10bn left & so to ESCALATE it needs to raise the level as volume limited
b) That happened w/ 75bn raising by 5% so items like US crude went from 25% to 30%
c) US imported ~550bn & so far
Events leading to today:
June '18: 🇺🇸25% tariffs on 34b; 🇨🇳 retaliates w/ 25% on 34
Aug '18: 🇺🇸25% on 16b; 🇨🇳 same
Sept '18: 🇺🇸10% on 200b that'll be raised to 25% (1 Jan)
🇨🇳 retaliates w/ 5% on 60b
Truce
May '19: 🇺🇸 raises 10% to 25% on 200b
June '19: 🇨🇳 raises 5-25% on 60bn
Not yet tariffed by both sides but WILL starting 1 September 2019, yes this Sunday:
a) 🇺🇸 tariffs on the remaining (see chart 👇🏻) 300bn by 10% that later exempt 156bn (mostly consumer goods till 15 December)
b) China retaliates w/ raising 5% on existing tariffs of 75bn so +5% 👇🏻
👇🏻:
c) 🇺🇸 Raising 5% on existing to 250bn to 30% on 1 October 2019.
By 1 October 2019: China tariffs on the US ranging from 10-30% of 110bn of goods & the US got 30% on 250bn of goods & 15% on 300bn of goods (w/ 156bn delayed til 15 Dec)
Basically all of trade b/n US&China 👇🏻👇🏻
d) By 15 December, unless there are efforts to delay tariffs, there will massive front-loading for fear of this happening & guess what?
WE WILL HAVE TARIFFS ON ALMOST ALL OF US CHINA TRADE.
But that never ends there. Watch investment.
70th anniversary of the People's Republic of China led by the CCP is on, wait for it:
1 October 2019, which is the same date that the 25% of 250bn goes to 30% & obvs a month before on 1 September 15% on 144bn (156bn to be applied on 15 December 19.
About that September talk😬..
As a recap: Notice that the "bark" much stronger than "bites" to manage expectations & actions always surprise u w/ lower magnitude but trend is escalation.
Meaning, worst case scenario now new normal & u rejoice when it escalates but less than "bark"👈🏻
As in the 10% to 15% of 144bn of goods on 1 September 19 (15% on 156bn of consumer goods 15 December) & 25% to 30% for 250bn of mostly intermediate goods on 1 October may not be realized, which u'll rejoice but only b/c ur expectations are managed. Don't forget that norms change
Trump: Non-committal in China tariff delay. Told you. He just puts it out there so you price the WORST & then takes a bit away & then when it happens you will think it is GOOD NEWS.
True story. This is what happened since late Jan 2018. SPX futures up 1% vs -1% this morning.
Do you know what happens after every escalation so far for trade-war? Deescalation by both China & the USA (yep, true story), albeit short-term reprieve until it escalates again, kind of like a dance to get to know each other's limit...
Same script still plays to buy time👈🏻
#Breaking Mofcom's Gao (de-escalating): Trade escalation not good for 🇨🇳, 🇺🇸; 🇺🇸 & 🇨🇳 in effective contact; 🇨🇳won't discriminate against foreign firms; Won't crack down on foreign firms; discussing 🇺🇸 visits in Sept; 🇨🇳 has ample tools to respond but thinks should discuss removal
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From winning the Trump trade war, India is now the US President’s biggest target. The Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff on India. To add insult to injury, Trump announced another 25% tariff, effective tomorrow, on the grounds that India imports crude oil from Russia.
Indian goods bound for the US will now face tariff rates similar to China’s if we include the Trump 1.0 tariffs, making any China+1 strategy in India less competitive for US markets, and relative to Southeast countries, which for the most part face tariff rates of about 20 per cent.
Will the additional 25% tariff stick? While Russia’s war with Ukraine isn’t going to end by Wednesday, the secondary Trump tariff is likely temporary. Therefore, the question is not whether India will be able to bring the 50% back down to at least 25%, but when.
Eight months after Trump has been inaugurated and we of course have now the EU US deal. What do we know about Trumponomics?
I would say my read is the Miran paper is a blueprint for Trump actions so far on trade. Let's see what I mean by that. And this has consequences of how Trump sees India, which I think is not just escalation to gain leverage.
First, let's talk about an important ally, the EU. The details are out and I would say this is actually rather good for the EU in the context of out of control Trump tariffs.
Why? EU tariffs are NOT stacked. They are ceilings. As in, they get 15% max, including sectoral tariffs like auto (including car parts), pharma, semiconductor, lumber etc but not steel & alum, which they are still trying to negotiate. There are some additional exemptions for EU products such as aircraft, parts, generic pharmas & ingredients etc.
Meaning, to trade for this 15%, the EU is falling closer into the US orbit via investment and trade as well as defense, which it is working on being more self sufficient with increased spending but not just yet.
Anyway, what can you say about other allies? It means South Korea and Japan can and hopefully have similar terms.
Remember that reciprocal tariffs under IEEPA aren't the only ones. Section 232s are pretty scary and more stuff being added all the time without warnings.
An example is steel where a few days ago 400 more products were added to include steel derivatives.
So if you want to have access, this is basically what the costs are and so what does that tell you about others? Here I go back to the Miran paper.
Guys, let's do it. All things Trump tariffs. Here we go. First, let's talk about the basics. 10% is the floor as in everyone gets that. And these are the economies that get higher than that:
15% (EU, Japan, South Korea and 33 countries: Angola, Botswana, etc.)
18% (Nicaragua)
19% (Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand)
20% (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Vietnam)
25% (Brunei, India, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Tunisia)
30% (Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Libya, South Africa)
35% (Iraq, Serbia)
39% (Switzerland)
40% (Laos, Myanmar)
41% (Syria)
In Asia, it looks like this. Excluding China and Myanmar, Laos, India got the highest - 25% and maybe more.
China is waiting for talks on extension. Right now, it's 10% reciprocal + 20% fentanyl during extension + 25% during Trump 1.0
Southeast Asia gets 20% to 19% except Laos & Myanmar at 40%, Brunei is 25% but energy is exempt so...
India original was 26% so 25% seems bad but frankly not too far from the Southeast Asians. That being said, India was aiming closer to 15% as Vietnam got dropped from 46% to 20%.
Anyway, let's talk about details of the White House info.
It goes into effect 7th August. But if you got stuff in ports/front-loading and not yet consumed till 1 October, there are varied rates for them.
Long story short, there is still time to negotiate this down before it goes into effect basically.
Trump tariff strikes India at 25% plus Russian oil import punishment. Is it a surprise? Not exactly. I have been thinking for a week what a US India deal look like. And to be honest, I think I saw this coming. I think India can negotiate down from this threat btw. It's not final. But how much lower and what are the costs?
Why is it not a surprise that India is not getting the deal that it is working hard on?
First, let's look at the EU and Japan - they got smacked with 15% tariff & got reprieve for auto (and other sectors) but auto is key at 15%.
So 15% is the best India can get. And it won't get it. Why? Well, it has to offer a lot to Trump to get that and it won't.
Remember that this is just a threat (similar to what Trump did with Japan before they settled on a lower number) and the threat I suppose can be real or not. Irrespective, he cares about it enough to post about it.
Trump has a few agendas that he wants India or Modi's help with.
Ending that Ukraine War is one. And India is not interested in that. It's an emerging country that buys where it can cheapest.
Russian oil is cheapest & so it buys from Russia & Trump wants to starve Russia of oil revenue. India doesn't want to not buy the cheapest oil possible. Besides, Russia is neither a foe nor a friend.
Maybe the West's foe but not India. So on this point, very hard. What are the costs to India? Well, it will have to pay more for its oil if it doesn't buy the cheapest oil.
India imported 15,000 cars a year. Why? It has 110% tariff on autos. Now, trade negotiations are not going well and it's approaching the WTO on Trump's 25% auto tariff.
But the reason is simple. India exports more than it imports autos. Why? It has pretty high tariff on auto.
What would an India trade deal look like then? Is there going to be one?
What's interesting is that the UK and India signed a trade deal that is supposedly a huge game changer.
Let's take a look at it.
Under the agreement, tariffs on imports of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars will be slashed to 30-50% in the first year of implementation, but with the benefit limited to a quota of 20,000 cars.
The tariffs will be reduced gradually, and after 15 years, they will become 10 per cent, with the quota set at 15,000 units. For out-of-quota imports of ICE cars, the duties are reduced to 60-95 per cent in the first year, and further to 45-50 per cent from the tenth year onwards.
So on the surface, it looks like a big deal but the quotas are so tiny that it makes one wonder.
Of course, relative to annual import, quotas are HUGE as it is MORE than annual import.
But why do people care so much about US 25% auto tariff but don't care so much about India's 110% auto tariff?
Well, because the US imports 8m cars EVERY YEAR.
Look at the big deal that is the UK and India trade deal liberalization. There is a limit in quota.
The quota that the US sets for the UK is 100,000. So in other words, the US remains a big deal and one that needs to be negotiated with.