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hi this is Anita from the global trade
gal where we like to talk about all
different things to do with trade as
many of you may know I am here in Hanoi
Vietnam I've spent my life in the export
business so I've seen a lot of changes
take place during my lifetime but one of
the changes I've seen which is happening
recently is a lot of these talks about
tariffs or protectionism or that somehow
countries or companies or people feeling
like well if we could just bring it all
back and make it all ourselves then
wouldn't that be better but the truth is
that there's a lot of products for
example that we make which will never be
made again in countries like the United
States for example nobody wants to go
into the furniture IND business anymore
to manufacture Furniture sure you might
say well there could some people they're
doing it with you know high-tech
machines and other things when it comes
stuff to some of the handmade finishes
the hand scrape finishes even for
furniture some of the weaving that needs
to take place some of the other things
people in America just don't have the
skills anymore to be able to do that and
I just don't see where the younger
generation really wants to do it so
where does this take us for
globalization you know if you if you
start to tariff everything or put
tariffs on every single thing that
enters a country like the United States
well essentially the people that are
going to be paying for this and I've
said this many times in this podcast is
the consumer the consumer is the one who
pays it's not the country that's
exporting it we as exporters we we quote
a price which is basically a price which
is known as an fob price fobb price
means that it's a price basically free
on board essentially means that it's our
role
as the manufacturer to get the goods to
the port so the port can get on the
ship our customers then will usually
nominate who they want to ship the goods
we will pick up the container from them
we will load the container we will seal
the container we'll get the container
back to the port we'll do the local
Customs for the country we're exporting
for and then we will get the container
on the ship once the container is on the
ship it's out of our hands it's in the
hands of the
shipper or the shipping company we no
longer have anything to do with the
container we couldn't even get the
container back if we wanted to get the
container back because it's already in
the hands of the shipping company itself
and once it hits the United States then
when it comes things for like the taxes
the tariffs all the other things they
need to be paid by the
Importer and so it's the US company
that's paying them so when the US
company has to pay say 25% more on
something being imported they are going
to have to us Le almost always pass that
on to you as the consumer or pass it on
to the person who's buying the product
why because of the fact that they won't
they don't have that kind of money in
the product itself to be able to swallow
that cost and second of all it is not
the exporter who's paying so you know
when something is exported from a
country like China and goes to the
United States there's some kind of
disbelief where many people believe that
somehow China's paying the extra 25%
China is not paying it it is being paid
by the Importer or the US company is
paying that and then ultimately it's the
consumer who will pay more for that
product or pay more for you know
whatever they're buying essentially why
you know
globalization or you know the Tariff
hurt Bas hurt business make prices
increase and one of the things which has
happened in the world which I'm a great
believer in is you know this this belief
of globalization where countries should
do what countries are good at and if
that if that happens where you know if
somebody's really good at weaving
baskets well let them weave the baskets
you know people in the United States
want to sit in their home and weave
baskets you know so so let them weave
the baskets import the baskets from them
and then if you're really good at
something else like like selling cars or
airplanes or whatever else it is let
them buy those from you because they're
not producing those so that's really
what trade is or free trade is about
it's about people using what they're
good at and then buying and selling from
each other so trade policies really can
have a huge impact on global economies
it basically hurt everyone if if
suddenly a you know tax or teror of 50%
or 25% or whatever it may be is put onto
a product first of all the consumer is
paying more so the consumer will buy
less of that because they just simply
won't be able to afford it the Importer
will have to put that cash out and you
know that gets very expensive so that
means that they won't be buying much of
anything else because they're using a
lot of their cash or their cash flow to
be able to import that product the other
thing is that the manufacturer also
loses out because the companies aren't
going to be buying as much cuz
essentially you know sales have stopped
and so they're not buying as much as
they used to so that means that
everybody in this sense is basically
losing out because of the higher tariffs
or taxes or or whatever else that is is
going on with this that's why trade
policies have a huge Global impact for
everybody and this does not just extend
for products such as you know baskets
that I've been talking about it can also
have to do for things like um steel for
example if a tariff is put on steel then
suddenly if somebody needs to buy steel
for you know maybe they need the steel
for housing for building for
manufacturing some type of product
suddenly that is going to cost them more
than if if they didn't the Tariff on the
steel this is one reason why I'm really
quite anti- tariff not only because I'm
an exporter but also because I just see
that there's a lot of craziness going on
for example I recently found out for
almost everything we buy in my Industry
Home Furnishing home decor from China is
under a 25% tariff that is just usually
a given almost everything we do is under
a 25% tariff but then I was looking the
other day at toys in fact plush toys and
discovered that plush
toys have no tariff so you would think
that you know if you're going to
equalize it between you know the
different type of categories you know
why is it plush toys don't have a tariff
and then something like a tray or a lamp
has a
tariff you know the United States
certainly could make plush toys if they
wanted there's people there that are
actually producing plush toys but yet
toys don't for some reason didn't come
under the Tariff but then some of the
raw materials which you have
manufacturers need in order to produce
their products in the united states are
under the Tariff so so for me all of the
tariffs just do not make sense they're
they're they're kind of like a little
bit of um craziness going on in my own
this is just my own opinion about it
because I sort of feel like why not put
a tariff on plush toys if you're going
to put a tariff on anything you would
think toys would have something to have
a tariff on it you know get more toys
produced in the United States but the
truth is that nobody in the United
States probably going to be producing
many toys so that's why plush toys are
probably not under not under the Tariff
I don't know why they're not under the
Tariff it doesn't make sense to me at
all but that is just an example of how
crazy tariffs can be that there can be
tariffs on certain things and not
tariffs on other things and so you know
tariffs can also hurt us manufacturers
as I pointed out before let's say a
paint is put on a tariff and they have
to buy a special paint from overseas
suddenly that paint becomes more
expensive they can't buy the paint in
the United States or they can't buy it
where they needed they're not able to
get the quality or maybe not the color
or maybe they're not able to get exactly
what they need or maybe the price is so
much more expensive that they need to
buy the paint overseas well suddenly if
paint is under tariff they need to pay
more for that paint and that doesn't
make sense because they're trying to
manufacture in the United States but at
the same time they need to pay more for
that product I don't know personally
whether paint is under a tariff but I'm
just use as an example as to how a
tariff will hurt hurts basically every
body another big problem with a lot of
the trade policies too is that they are
not static in other words they can
change according to the
geopolitical shifts and we see this
quite a bit in the United States what's
happening now you know suddenly we have
a new president coming in and so tariffs
are being threatened again because
tariffs seem to be the popular word that
many people like that somehow they're
under this impression that a tariff is
paid for by someone else not by the
country that's importing it so that's
one of the issues with a lot of the
trade and one of the challenges of
global trade itself is that it's
constantly changing there's political
Landscapes changing things are changing
so it's it's kind of a fluid uh type of
Industry where it's where things are
changing suddenly within a heartbeat
somebody could put a tariff for you on a
product you're exporting and suddenly
you're no longer competitive
anymore my co-author James Johnson has
written a Blog on this a globalization
effects on imports and exports we've
gone into more detail on this I just
wanted to add a few of my thoughts to
his thoughts that he has put on this but
this you know really tariffs and and
trade that's why I'm a great believer in
free trade that we should really all
work you know as as country should work
together to make trade as fair and free
as possible thank you so much for
listening this is Anita from the global
trade gal we hope you've enjoyed this
podcast and we'll put a link to our our
blog in the description so that you can
be able to check it out if you're
interested in checking out our blog post
on this and if you are in the trade and
you've had problems with tarff other
things we'd love to hear from you love
to hear your thoughts on this and we
just thank you so much for being part of
our community
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