spheric

tiredskills said:

jem101 said:

Now here VAT is applied at a national level, currently 20% but some products are zero rated, most foodstuff, children's clothing, for example. So if a product is sold for, say £100 then the retailer is required to send £20 to the government as a sales tax. And this applies to everything, there is no exemption for ‘home made’ stuff, so yes, I’m struggling to see what issue the current US administration has about this!

Not quite right, the 20% isn't applied on the end price, it's on the pre-tax price, which the consumer hardly ever sees in countries outside the USA unless you check the detail of your receipts.  If the product is sold for £100, then the pre-tax price would have been £83.33, and the 20% VAT would be £16.66, for a total, inc VAT of £100.

9secondkox2 said:

Mike Wuerthele said:

9secondkox2 said:

Wesley_Hilliard said:

9secondkox2 said:

so… tje idea that the usa is not imposing tarriffs on Vietnam is incorrect. 

The two countries are equalizing their tarriffs with the same rates. 

The USA is charging 20% direct snd 40% trans-shipped. 

Plus the usa gets a wide open door to sell to Vietnam markets. 

Seems like a pretty clear win for the usa. 

Tarriffs equal out, creating a level playing field, but then the USA gains a marketplace to sell previously difficult to penetrate. 

So, it may not be crazy, but it’s a notable win. 

https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2025/07/02/trump-trade-vietnam-deal.html

From cnn of all places:

Trump said the United States will charge a 20% tariff for Vietnamese exports into America, and a 40% tariff for “transshipping.” US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in a post on X Wednesday afternoon the “transshipping” tariff means “if another country sells their content through products exported by Vietnam to us — they’ll get hit with a 40% tariff.”

The 20% tariff is double the current minimum tariff rate the US is charging on goods from Vietnam and virtually every other country.

“In return, Vietnam will do something that they have never done before, give the United States of America TOTAL ACCESS to their Markets for Trade,” he added. “In other words, they will ‘OPEN THEIR MARKET TO THE UNITED STATES,’ meaning that, we will be able to sell our product into Vietnam at ZERO Tariff.”

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/07/02/business/trade-deal-vietnam-trump

I don’t know how snyonr can argue against this move. Yet Another notch in the win column. 

It’s a “lopsided deal” in favor of the USA according to some economists. 

https://fox59.com/business/ap-business/ap-president-trump-announces-trade-deal-with-vietnam-that-will-let-us-goods-into-the-country-duty-free/amp/

"lol, no" is about all the time this post is worth.

I guess when confronted with the facts, just dismiss, eh? LOL

I covered your "facts" just fine. Wes didn't even need to.

Honestly it seemed more like opinion and conjecture. 

And nobody needed to “cover” my post. It was simply stating facts from multiple news sources. That’s literally the crime here? Dang. 

Kuminga said:

Also again,

Just because Vietnam has 20 percent tariffs

it doesn't mean that is the number that will pass onto consumers

Amazon and Costco doesn’t have to buy from Vietnam at those tariffs , they can negotiate down the rate or tell them to absorb it or no more deal.

Kuminga said:

Wesley_Hilliard said:

So Americans pay 20% to 40% more on all goods from Vietnam and people in Vietnam pay nothing. Good deal bro.

Too much CNN bro…

if a Pizza place suddenly wants to sell you a pizza  for $12 , raising it from $9, are you forced to buy that pizza for $12 or you look for another place that sells it for $9 still?