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So does Trump really think that tariffs will simultaneously bring in so much revenue that he can get rid of income tax plus also lead to imports being replaced by US manufacturing ?

If the imports are replaced where does the tariff revenue come from ?

The great new rustbelt manufacturing boom and the extra tax revenue

That extra tax revenue will be paid by US consumers alongside the higher prices.

You cannot get rich by producing low value added consumer tat.

Trump has

At the expense of others not by creating anything of value.

That might work very well for an individual but it doesn't work for a country.

It worked for China over the last few decades

China has sold the consumer tat it produces to richer countries.

Now which countries are going to buy consumer tat which has been made at American prices ?

Americans

So Americans will be paying higher prices.

That might help those Americans who might be employed at new consumer tat factories but they're going to far exceeded by those Americans who will lose out.

Not if they buy American

Who are, for example, these imaginary textile manufacturers they will buy from ?
Or electronic goods ?

You're living in a fantasy world.

Even where there is domestic manufacturing, companies will put up their prices because of the reduced competition.

And then employ more American workers

How much are they going to pay these new American workers to produce consumer tat ?

Because if its not competitive compared to other jobs they wont get any workers and if they do pay competitive wages then that will increase the product price even more.

The main reason rustbelt voters voted for Trump was precisely because their wages were low, if they were all in high paying jobs they wouldn't need to vote to rebuild US manufacturing industry would they!

We’re at risk here of the world pulling together a notAmerica free trade zone and the UK not being part of it

This is an absurd fantasy. There isn't a NotAmerica free trade zone, and we're already part of the CPTPP and have a free trade zone with the EU.

1. An awful lot of people are talking about creating something new
2. CPTPP means what - that we can’t do anything else? Anyone told China and Japan?
3. We don’t have free trade with the EU. We have a long swathe of tariffs and longer swathes of paperwork even when the tariff rate is zero.

I know that this is a very tough time for you. Thoughts and prayers and all that

Think through the implications of your third point. We have a comprehensive zero-tariff and zero-quota TCA with the EU that goes beyond most free trade agreements in existence globally, but now you imagine that the rest of the world will somehow suddenly agree to go well beyond that and exclude us? It's detached from reality.

Ok, so free trade is detached from reality, but yerman Trump is I assume connected with it?

You are ramping a trade deal you don’t understand for political reasons. All of us who actually trade have described in detail how it isn’t free and people like you call us liars. I live here and import. You live over there and don’t.

There is genuine free trade inside the EEA. We can expand that. And global leaders - literally global as they’re saying it across the globe - want to do this.

Again, we all have you in our thoughts in this Hard Time for you. But that doesn’t change the simple reality that you’re now shilling for Trump which means shilling for Putin which means you know what for Ukraine.

You said:

We’re at risk here of the world pulling together a notAmerica free trade zone and the UK not being part of it

Putting this together with your thoughts on how the UK-EU TCA isn't free trade, then I have to assume you are picturing something like a global single market excluding the UK and US. It's just not happening.

If tariffs are so awful why haven't other nations (And supranational blocks such as the EU) done away with them all ?

Because economic theory allows for tariffs in certain limited circumstances. When you are protecting infant industries (which America's aren't), when there are industries crucial to non-economic purposes like national security (which these general tariffs don't pretend to protect) and when there are increasing returns to scale (ditto), there is some argument for them.

Also, politically, powerful lobby groups like farmers and carmakers that benefit hugely from them can influence cowardly or ignorant politicians.

Are all of the EU tariffs protecting fledgling industries? (genuine question)

Nope but I think they are mainly national security ones (and food because well the French founded the EU)

And there's the problem. We're supposed to just accept the French doing what the French do.

Trump's a moron. But he and the rest of the idiots over there don't owe the world a living.

We’re at risk here of the world pulling together a notAmerica free trade zone and the UK not being part of it

This is an absurd fantasy. There isn't a NotAmerica free trade zone, and we're already part of the CPTPP and have a free trade zone with the EU.

1. An awful lot of people are talking about creating something new
2. CPTPP means what - that we can’t do anything else? Anyone told China and Japan?
3. We don’t have free trade with the EU. We have a long swathe of tariffs and longer swathes of paperwork even when the tariff rate is zero.

I know that this is a very tough time for you. Thoughts and prayers and all that

The pillock-in-a-pond quite clearly has zero knowledge of what the current trading arrangements are and what new ones are possible or even desirable. Should we give proto-fascist and Russian oil-guzzler Modi whatever he wants (which seems to be a huge deal on visas) because we're incensed by Trump’s 10% tariff? India has an average tariff rate of 17%!

If tariffs are so awful why haven't other nations (And supranational blocks such as the EU) done away with them all ?

Because economic theory allows for tariffs in certain limited circumstances. When you are protecting infant industries (which America's aren't), when there are industries crucial to non-economic purposes like national security (which these general tariffs don't pretend to protect) and when there are increasing returns to scale (ditto), there is some argument for them.

Also, politically, powerful lobby groups like farmers and carmakers that benefit hugely from them can influence cowardly or ignorant politicians.

Are all of the EU tariffs protecting fledgling industries? (genuine question)