China's Tarrifs Affect Tobacco

[perdurabo]

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/04/the-full-list-of-us-products-that-china-is-planning-to-hit-with-tariffs.html
I know Free Markets are despised around the globe and in the corners of the Inter/Space, but how will this anti free market move by the US affect tobacco. Specifically pipe tobacco? Now China fires back with a 25% hike on flue cured tobacco. I don't know if any pipe tobacco comes from China. But while researching blends like C&D Mad Fiddler Flake, the Katsuri leaf comes from Asia. So obviously this blend could be affected. Just thought it interesting news to pass on.

 

[jpmcwjr]

What a steaming pile of shit, the whole trade war-tariff war debacle.

 

[mikethompson]

Agreed
As to how it will affect tobacco, I was under the impression that most tobacco for pipes comes from domestically grown stuff.

 

[perdurabo]

Yes, this is tobacco going into China, which will affect the prices here and there, as well as jobs here and there. But I would expect it to affect some exotic leaf grown in Asia as well... in the long run.

 

[pappymac]

I'm sitting this one out before it gets political and closed.

 

[mso489]

Economics, the dismal science, or art, is always opaque in concepts. However, after the Smoot-Hawley Act imposed tariffs that gave rise to, or enhanced, the economic decline that became the Great Depression, economists and politicians have know better than to tamper with tariffs. Now for whatever reasons they no longer know better. With luck, the "trade wars" will peter out before they do real damage, if they haven't already. 'Looks like farmers and agribusiness will take some of the first hits. This is not good for the family farm which is mostly subsidized by family jobs in town these days. This could further hollow out the rural population and close down many towns that are just hanging on.

 

[tbradsim1]

Farmers will be hit hard by this, pork, nut growers, grains exported to China, doesn't make sense.

 

[sablebrush52]

Right now it's still a bunch of dick swinging. We'll see how far it goes after all the Chinese manufactured electronic circuitry running the US's national defense suddenly shuts down.

 

[woodsroad]

The tariff is on American flue-cured tobacco imported by China. It is a Chinese tariff.
In the other direction, China does grow a lot of tobacco, but it has generally been of low quality and is not (to the best of my knowledge) used in American pipe tobacco blends.

 

[ashdigger]

This makes me want Kung Pao chicken for lunch.

 

[sablebrush52]

In the other direction, China does grow a lot of tobacco, but it has generally been of low quality and is not (to the best of my knowledge) used in American pipe tobacco blends.

It is great over rice.

 

[rmpeeps]

I’d rather eat Pad Kee Mao.

 

[dmcmtk]

The Chinese have about 500~800 billion reasons to come to an agreement/accommodation.

 

[seacaptain]

There never has, and never will be free trade. I'm an advocate for it in theory, but it never exists in reality, and I think each country should adjust trade laws in their own best interests. The US hasn't done that in 30 years and now we are to a small degree and everybody comes unhinged.

 

[aldecaker]

^^^ This exactly. Apparently it was easy and painless for our trade cycle to go one way, but this is absolutely going to murder us and turn us into a smoking third-world wasteland.

 

[woodsroad]

a smoking third-world wasteland

So what's wrong with smoking?

 

[aldecaker]

Wrong kind of smoking. Perhaps I should have used "smoldering".

 

[perdurabo]

Don't forget tariffs are taxes. Protectionism has never been successful, its artificial. A free market only works when the consumer is left to decide. So yes there has been a free market, but it's not been seen in the US since Articles of Confederation. Obviously taxes/tariffs have a positive purpose for a country, but for a long time, they are used to pick winners and losers as well as destroy competitors. Hence the purpose of lobbyist.

 

[perdurabo]

The fun fact is China can't afford a tariff war, but that's beside the point. It really funny to see Human Experience pushed aside and idiots practice the art of Insanity.

 

[maker]

Some people just love to talk politics...