Depends what the settlement currency is but i believe that most of the importers pay the chinese in usd.
It's probably relevant to all this **** but most people in Wales buy New Zealand lamb from supermarkets because it's a lot cheaper. We've got lots of sheep but import New Zealand lamb and export Welsh lamb. Now I might be missing something here but if we just stopped doing both and sell our own lamb at a reasonable price the cost of exporting it would be saved and everyone is happy eating the nicer lamb that hasn't travelled half way around the world. But I'm probably wrong innit. Not that simple because people don't want it to be.
The bit you are missing is the cost of raising the lambs in the first place ... we tend to have to supplement the feed for our livestock whereas in NZ there is plenty of 'free' grazing ... which is why they can produce it cheaper ...
Scotch Whiskey and any iconic 'British brands' are going to be worse hit... so expect reciprocals on Bourbon etc ...
Nice simple idea ... but if it was feasible we'd already be doing it ... our farmers are already squeezed to **** by the big supermarkets ...
Trump has a point, he just goes about it all in a manner that pisses everyone off...maybe it is the only way he can get people to sit up and listen. Why shouldn't America build American cars and cut down on imports, much like Wales eating it's own sheep. I find it frustrating when people chat about environmental issues and then blatantly ignore the fact that we are shipping **** all over the world. China exporting stuff through Mexico to eventually end up in the US, Canada making cars with parts that need to criss cross over the States about half a dozen times in the process. Wales / UK eating New Zealand sheep and exporting Welsh lamb elsewhere. We've destroyed our own textile businesses to import cheap tat from Asia. Companies choosing not to pay the living wage in the UK, and prefering paying pennies in Bangladesh...Banking industry just as bad by offshoring work. Russia controlling Europes cheap energy, instead of Europe being self sufficient.
You think there's sense in all this? If there was no NZ Lamb then the supermarkets would strike a deal with UK farmers to get lamb in because of the demand. It isn't quite that simple but that should be the starting point and if there's still a demand then we should only be importing the shortfall and it should be taxed so that consumers see no difference in price and therefore only buy the import if it's better quality or the other option isn't available.
Well apart from the fact that the export market (particularly the US) is huge for our Scotch Whiskey producers ...
Indeed, we don't need Peruvian asparagus so stop buying it. If we can't produce enough asparagus then people will have to eat something else. It's really not a problem plenty of different veggies nobody dies from lack of asparagus.
As bad as it sounds, that is the reason why even the average wage earner in the UK is able to afford a smart phone, designer clothes, 2-3 smart TV's in their house and multiple PC's and gaming consoles. Because all that **** is made in China or Pakistan for tuppence! I will be curious to see how this goes, really......
We'll it won't be if there's no bourbon and Japanese whiskey and other similar things and all the people with no bourbon etc will buy Scottish whiskey.
So an import we need or want that we cannot produce ourselves or produce an alternative for. Now that's sensible trading.
A few years ago I was told a story about Princes frozen langoustines. Apparently they were farmed in a loch in Scotland, frozen and shipped en masse to China to be packaged, and returned the UK to be sold in supermarkets.
