Tariffs second part

Since April 2 we have been on a rollercoaster, tariffs have been the talk of most news. And today they still are, mainly because I think nobody really knows where they are going. Because after all I have heard at least seven different reasons of why they should be applied and more of why they shouldn't. But in reality the reasons for applying them have been changed so many times that I, at least have no idea what is really happening. Lets see if I can remember some of these reasons.

Force Mexico and Canada to reduce smuggling of drugs and undocumented people into the USA. But it seems that both countries were already working on this, so that reason was actually no reason.

Bring manufacturing back to the USA, but frankly I think the USA is beyond that, the US economy is now more focused on the future or at least it should be, so having trade deficits with countries that supply the needs of its citizens should not be that big a burden, the size of its economy makes that a non issue.

Eliminate income tax and create an external revenue service, OK I understand this one, but if you are just going to waiver tariffs it won't work, especially if manufacturing jobs are not coming back.

An even playing field for trade. This is not going to happen, the USA will have trade deficits with the big suppliers and a trade surplus with the smaller economies always.

Somewhere along the way I read that in reality applying tariffs was a way for the USA to get ready for an AI future. This one really has me stumped, I understand absolutely nothing about this option.

Finally it was to put pressure on China, which at least does make some sense, but a waiver on most electronic imports from China makes me think that this has very little to do with China.

At least it seems crypto is not hurting as much right now and I expect tomorrow to be better.

Now, I am no economist and have no real insight into tariffs, but I think the thing should go something like this. I am from Honduras, we produce enough oranges to completely satisfy our demand and even a surplus to export some oranges to the rest of Central America. Now if we put a tariff on Florida oranges that would be sensible, as we would be protecting our producers. But we hardly produce any wheat, most of our wheat and other food stuffs come from the USA, why would we tariff these products? We would be shooting ourselves in the foot. That is why even though the USA did tariff our products with 10%, we did not fight back. OK, we can't really do much against a super power, but tariffing things that are essential to us would be stupid if not suicidal.

Well, right now I just hope this comes to a sensible and productive closure and we can get back to not living with tariffs in our brains.