Tariffs and Shipping

[tengineer1]

Ship owners were concerned about tariffs before. Now they can do some planning.
https://www.reuters.com/business/trumps-reciprocal-tariff-plan-amplifies-risk-ocean-shipping-chaos-executives-say-2025-04-02/

[ombugge]

How much pain can the US economy and consumers take before the Republicans turn on Trump, like they did on Nixon?

[ombugge]

Looks like small, or even unpopulated island, whether in the Arctic or Tropics, haven’t escaped the eagle eyes of Mr. Trump, his staffers and advisers:

What exactly Donald Trump has in mind when he Wednesday introduced a 10% tariff on the Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard is unclear.

The fuzzy question why Donald Trump imposes a 10% reciprocal tariff on Svalbard and Jan Mayen is unanswered. Screenshot from White House fact-sheet

The sub-Antarctic Australian external territory of Heard and McDonald islands, mostly populated by penguins, face a similar 10% tariff from Donald Trump like the Norwegian Arctic islands.

But they somehow managed to miss their newfound friends:

Two dictatorships in Europe are excluded from Trump’s global-hitting sweeping tariffs; Russia and Belarus.

Maybe dictatorships are “flavour of the day” and the aspiration of this administration?

Source: Trump slaps tariffs on Arctic islands with almost no export

PS> Apparently China is NOT favoured. Maybe not enough of a dictatorship to be in the good book with Trump?

[tengineer1]

@ombugge

How much pain can the US economy and consumers take before the Republicans turn on Trump, like they did on Nixon?

This people in the USA now are different from the ones in the Nixon era. They turned on Nixon when they found out he was a crook. The current crowd voted for a guy who tried to over throw the government. It’s a different USA now.

[Binbag_the_Saylore]

I am only surprised by the fact that Donald had actually heard of the Heard & McDonald rocks!

[ombugge]

Far from me to speculate about the future, but I think that:

• At first “everybody” will try their luck at flattering Trump to get favours and getting nothing by scorn in return.
• When the first shock is over “everybody” will realize that talking to Trump only makes him feel more self-important, invincible and like the “King of the World”.
• They will start talking to each other about a new world order without USA at the top.
• After some time a multi-polar world order will emerge, with China (as leader of the BRICS countries (- Russia), the EU countries (with UK, Norway, Turkey and possibly Canada as associated members) and maybe other groupings of countries (AU, ASEAN, MERCOSUR etc.) taking the lead in the world.
• The US$ will be replaced with a basket of currencies (Euro, RMB, Yen, £, SFr.>) as the major trading currency
• USA, (with Don jr. as dictator) MAY form a group with other dictatorships, like Russia, Belarus, Venezuela etc., or just try to go it alone in splendid isolation.

Impossible BS you say??, Well those who live long enough will see.

Someone else appears to see the same scenario (more or less):

Alternative front page:

From The Economist newsletter today: (For subscribers only]/q

Zanny Minton Beddoes
Editor-in-chief

Watching President Donald Trump’s Rose Garden performance yesterday, it was hard to believe what I was seeing: flawed economics, inaccurate history and cockamamie calculations used to justify the most wrong-headed and damaging policy decision in decades. Mr Trump’s “Liberation Day” was more like ruination day. Our cover leader in most of the world predicts that these mindless tariffs will cause chaos. Almost everything Mr Trump said this week—on history, economics and the technicalities of trade—was deluded. He has long glorified the high-tariff era of the late 19th century. In fact, it was the painstaking rounds of trade talks in the 80 years after the second world war that lowered tariffs and led to unprecedented global prosperity, including for America.

The country that created, and has gained mightily from, the global trade system is now trying to destroy it. The question for countries reeling from the president’s vandalism is how to limit the damage. We argue that they should focus on increasing trade flows among themselves, especially in the services that power the 21st-century economy. There is no avoiding the havoc Mr Trump has wrought, but that does not mean his foolishness is destined to triumph.

After I spent last week in China, it is even clearer just how crazy Mr Trump’s plan is. You might think that these are anxious times in the country that America sees as its main adversary. In fact, our reporting from Beijing reveals a very different picture. Our cover leader in Asia spies a big beautiful opportunity for Xi Jinping. It is true that China has come out badly from Mr Trump’s Rose Garden rant. The new total tariff level could reach around 65%—a blow to China’s economy.

But Mr Xi has been preparing for today’s chaotic world ever since becoming the country’s leader in 2012. His push for greater self-sufficiency means that China is now less vulnerable to America’s economic chokeholds. To grasp this opportunity, the Communist Party needs to stop persecuting the private sector. The economy will also need more stimulus to boost domestic consumption, and more determined efforts to stabilise a long-struggling property market. As America puts up walls, China has a chance to reset trade relations around the world. Whether it seizes the moment depends on one man: Mr Xi. But the fact the opportunity exists owes much to another: Mr Trump.

My next stop is Washington, DC, this weekend. Maybe I’ll find out if there is any method to the madness.

[ombugge]

He probably don’t know about the Norwegian dependencies of Svalbard and Jan Mayen either.
Somehow they have ended up on a list of countries and territories (from CIA?)

PS> Don’t know if Bouvetøya appears on the list as well. (It also belong to Norway):

Bouvetøya (Bouvet Island)

[Steamer]

@tengineer1

It’s a different USA now.

Considering how many of our main bearings have been either spun or wiped, chances are we are listening to the nation’s death rattle.

[Binbag_the_Saylore]

A better one than uninhabited penguin colonies…
BIOT - 10%
No, not the French town near Grasse - the British Indian Ocean Terr.
Otherwise known as Diego Garcia, exclusively populated by U.S. military.
I’m shocked, shocked, I tell you…

[bunker305]

About time a president put those Woke penguins in their place. All they do is teach DEI and CRT. They helped Hillary delete her emails, cover up Benghazi and her role in Pizzagate. They teamed up with Jugo Chavez’s ghost to steal the 2020 election, sold the laptop to Hunter Biden and are card carrying members of the Deep State. And their use of pronouns along with their obvious support of trans book readings in schools they should have known they had it coming.

[Binbag_the_Saylore]

He’s tryig to coerce the penguins into being his Greenland invasion/occupation force!

[jdcavo]

@ombugge

just try to go it alone in splendid isolation

I was going to commend you for the Warren Zevon reference and then realized it probably wasn’t that.

[ombugge]

No it has nothing to do with any singer, song, or movie, which appears to be popular things to refer to on this forum.

BTW; I noticed that British Indian Ocean Territory
has been slapped wit 10% tariffs.
Does this include any souvenirs or other article brought back from Diego Garcia by returning US servicemen/women?

Swiss watches is going to be 31% more expensive (on top of 30% from before)
That will be felt hard by some of the cabinet members, I believe.

This from the full list of tariffs now in force on various countries and (random) territories around the world.
Source: Trump’s tariffs: the full list | Tariffs | The Guardian

[tengineer1]

China strikes back. I expect the EU to follow soon. Not surprisingly Russia was exempt from US tariffs even though penguins on uninhabited islands weren’t.
I am waiting to see how these tariffs affect shipping.
https://www.reuters.com/world/china-impose-tariffs-34-all-us-goods-april-10-2025-04-04/

[ombugge]

US Threatens IMO with Tariffs

The Trump administration has pulled out of the decarbonization negotiations taking place at the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) 83rd session this week.
The US government is threatening reciprocal measures if any fees are imposed on US vessels based on GHG emissions or fuel choices.

What next? Withdrawing USA from the WTO, UN, or any other international organization it may is still a member of?

Who dares to be the country that doesn’t bow to the will of the King on the hill?

[ombugge]

Federal court blocks Trump’s tariffs - Splash247

Now it is also cast into doubt whether or not the announced tariffs will even be implementable – and this also raises the question whether tariffs paid in recent weeks can ultimately be reclaimed. If the tariffs are ultimately (after appeals) found to be unlawfully implemented, shippers should have a good case for getting the paid tariffs back.”

Trump backed down on his trade war with China earlier this month, slashing tariffs by 115% for a 90-day period, leading to a huge box freight rate rise on the transpacific as shippers rush to meet the deadline.

As predictable as anything:

The Trump administration promised to appeal against a ruling by “unelected judges” that blocks Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs. The United States Court of International Trade in New York said that the president exceeded his authority in imposing them. Mr Trump had justified the levies by declaring that fentanyl smuggling and America’s trade deficit are national emergencies. But the court noted that Congress normally controls tariff rates and declared that Mr Trump’s tariffs do not clearly “deal with” the problems he cited. The disputes will probably end up before the Supreme Court.

Source: Trade court deals Trump a legal blow

[spowiednick]

Are U a Trumpophobe Dr, Bugge ?

US seems to be behind the Cook Islands hit on info sharing( RISC’s) and U do not protest?? U do not bemoan ??? Beats me.
Cook Islands registry ‘at loss to understand’ reason for RISC ejection :: Lloyd’s List

[ombugge]

I didn’t write the article. Let’s just say; I’m not a fan.

Lloyds list is behind paywall. Here is the article on a freely available webpage:

Cook Islands Registry Ejected From Sanctions Risk Database

After multiple reports of “shadow fleet” tankers on its registry, the Cook Islands has been ejected from a U.S.-backed information platform that helps registries track sanctioned vessels.
Earlier this month, Maritime Cook Islands learned that it had been removed from access to the Registry Information Sharing Compact (RISC), an international database designed to help registry administrators find and block sanctions violators.

Shipping registries form new information-sharing database to curb sanctions...

Maritime Cook Islands – The Cook Islands Ships Registry

[gumbyman]

Are you a cultist Spowiednick? I’ve never seen you say anything critical of our felon in chief.

[spowiednick]

Irrespective of the Agent Pumpkin qualities , I know looking from the distance, there are more or less an equal number of his haters as his supporters. But yes .I like the guy but rather as a male- person., I like his brutishness, his harshness , his roughness in acting as a boss, i liked the way he treated failures and weaklings in his program " you are fired " or sth like that. BTW it was the first time i saw him and heard of him. I may have critical opinion of his dealing with the war in UKR . But surely I do not adore him as He is not my president but one of the few visiting my country and not saying that the death camps were my camps and insinuating I am resposible for the Holocaust. Yours " our fellon in chief" I consider as a result of intensive brainwashing of the woke, collective west , liberal main stream sewage media ,which are selling turbo charged lies about almost everything in such a way that Stalin ,Goebbels ,Mao & commies/Nazis in general are green with envy hearing and seeing this effing circus.

Now You know .

But I do not judge people here for their political beliefs .I do not give a rats ass abt it. Take Dr.Bugge for example . I should hate him but instead I respect him for what he says and offers here regarding things maritime and his political inclinations do not bother me at all . Tease Him sometimes but that is all. I do not think I am qualified to criticise or support any POTUS in the private forum where Americans are 99.9% . You know better what U like and what U do not like. It is your bussiness and I would rather be a spectator of your arguments and quarrels. Trust it clarifies.