Luxon says New Zealand won't launch reciprocal tariffs against US
Luxon says New Zealand won't launch reciprocal tariffs against US
New Zealand is "relatively well positioned" to weather Trump's new sweeping global tariffs according to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Because doing so would require some bravery and integrity.
Coward
Spineless bootlicker. Maybe he's hoping for some road cones.
Trump can stay irrational longer than NZ can stay solvent...
Yeah. Wtf is with the other comments. Yes Luxon sucks but this is the correct move and is probably informed by policy experts at RBNZ and Treasury.
Trump’s reaction to Canada actually implementing reciprocal tariffs shows how bad of an idea this is. I’m an economist, and this is the textbook definition of the prisoner’s dilemma. Both sides get hit with negative payoffs and it is the worst result overall.
We have to wean ourself off that teat.
Lucky for us we already have free trade deals with other countries and they can buy everything se well.
Winston will be happy. He's trying real hard to be 47.
Would that not just make US products more expensive for us? Not that I'm buying many US based goods these days.
To be honest I don't even know what are our major imports from America are.
Yes. That's the whole idea. It would discourage people from buying products from the USA just like he is discouraging Americans from buying our products.
I was trying to figure out the same thing, Ford Utes? But they might actually be made somewhere in SEA for all I know given they're right-hand drive models. Teslas will be coming from there and it would be a good energy move to put tarrifs on electric vehicles imported from USA just to spite space karen. I'm sure there's plenty of other mundane stuff we just don't think about.
Kiwi Tesla's probably come from China like Aussie ones.
Software....
similar to our govt, which is thinking of sending someone to plead with Trump to ease the tariffs.
I mean, just look at what happened to Zelenskyy, he was bullied
He stood his ground and still hasn't given up half of his mineral wealth to Trump and Europe has promised to continue to support Ukraine.
He did learn his lesson though. You can't trust the USA. Hopefully that's a lesson we will learn too but that's dim hope given how Seymour, Winston, and Luxon have embraced MAGA.
I don't think there's a particularly right or wrong answer in response to the tariffs, but we should be seriously considering our security posture which ties us so heavily to the USA.
There has always been an unspoken risk by being tied so closely to the US; but as their interest in & ability to defend their allies wanes those risks move from the unlikely to likely.
Some will argue we can't take an independent position as we'll just get pulled in the orbit of some bloc against our will anyway. Its difficult to have a good answer on where we should align ourselves.
We could lobby for EU membership I suppose
I'd kinda like CANZUK to be a thing.
We don't have to tie ourselves to the USA, we have other options. We could seek closer ties to India, China, Japan, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand and other nations near us. I think what's preventing us from doing this is frankly just bigotry.
Today, BRICS countries are home to roughly 3.3 billion people — over 40% of the global population. The BRICS economies also account for an estimated 37.3% of global gross domestic product based on purchasing power parity. We could join BRICS but we won't, we could join the EU but they might not have us.
I don't think its just bigotry, there's a load of tradition and history that ties particularly Pakeha New Zealand to the west. And without devolving into bothsidesism (although, obviously it is) some people do have questions about aligning with regimes accused of human rights abuses and what not.
I think NZ does need to start having the discussion though; the old assumptions and alliances are bending and its foolish not to ask where our future alignment is best placed.