alt Hacker NewsI saw a post on X which said it was "vibe tariffing" and I think the person was speculating that the tariffs were probably generated using an LLM and saying "make me a tariff chart with ALL the countries and each one about 25% but randomize them."
That's the only plausible explanation I can see. A human with any brains wouldn't put tariffs on islands only populated by penguins.
Doge should look into this inefficiency.
Replies
lostlogin • 04/03/2025
But some of those places aren’t even countries. As already stated - weird.
It’s almost like it wasn’t well thought out.
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jonasced • 04/03/2025
I'm not saying they make sense but according to the US Trade Representative this is the equation used to calculate the tariffs:
blacklion • 04/03/2025
For many countries patter look like ($USA-import - $USA-export)/$USA-import.
I think it's basically reciprocal adjusted for trade deficit, with a floor of 10%.
So obviously you'll end up with 10% on all sorts of places where you actually have a trade surplus and no tarrifs on your goods, or, yes, islands inhabited only by penguins.