Reverse engineering of the formula used to generate the "reciprocal tariffs"

4/3/2025 at 5:31:18 AM

Funny that this is the exact calculation that ChatGPT suggests. Seems like another genius Musk idea. Madagascar definitely deserves 47% tariffs on US imports.

https://xcancel.com/krishnanrohit/status/1907587352157106292

by jmeyer2k

4/3/2025 at 10:52:52 AM

I especially liked the comment, "This is Vibe Governing".

by antfarm

4/3/2025 at 6:05:16 AM

I’m not sure when this was posted, but it didn’t need reverse engineering: https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/reciprocal-tariff-calculations

by amscanne

4/3/2025 at 6:29:54 AM

Can anyone tell me why this is a bad idea? The effective pair wise tariff rate of these countries is still larger than the US and simply brings it more in line. Why is this a bad thing?

by sayasen

4/3/2025 at 7:04:04 AM

Because none of what they call “tariffs imposed on the US” are tariffs. It’s the trade deficit divided by the country’s exports to the US. They’re literally making shit up and expecting stupid people to take it at face value.

They’re imposing tariffs on uninhabited islands. They don’t care enough to even try and make it plausible. That’s how stupid they think their supporters are and how much contempt they have for them.

by buildartefact

4/3/2025 at 10:54:09 AM

> That’s how stupid they think their supporters are and how much contempt they have for them.

And, er, based on the response from their supporters, seems like they're not wrong.

The markets, however, will be far less forgiving.

by rsynnott

4/3/2025 at 10:53:04 AM

> The effective pair wise tariff rate of these countries is still larger than the US and simply brings it more in line.

^ is, er, not true, though.

They based it on _trade deficits_ (plus some random messing around which resulted in some uninhabited islands with no trade or independent trade policy being assigned a value), not tariffs. Which makes no sense at all.

by rsynnott

4/3/2025 at 1:51:43 PM

it turns out if you leave islands out of your regulatory schemes, they become loopholes later on. See Ireland, the Cayman Islands, etc. etc.

by dani__german

4/3/2025 at 6:48:43 AM

> The effective pair wise tariff rate of these countries

Only if you calculate them wrong. E.g. for the EU they included sales tax as a tariff, which makes no sense since that applies to ALL products. Domestic or otherwise.

by Doxin

4/3/2025 at 6:58:20 AM

Any policy made with a lack of understanding this profound is a bad idea. Because they just ran this through a spreadsheet instead of paying any attention, among the tariffs are some uninhabited islands and another region whose only population is a US military base.

The highest tariffs are applied to countries like Madagascar, from which the US imports less than half a billion dollars of goods per annum. A drop in the bucket. Another silly example is the Falkland Islands, whose annual exports to the US don't even hit thirty million dollars. The formula they hit upon is what a high school student would come up with, and is not informed by any actual plan.

by stonogo

4/3/2025 at 6:03:13 AM

I thought I had burned away all my empathy for seppostanis but somehow I am still able to feel third hand embarrassment at this moment.

This is actually monumentally dumb.

by protocolture