The Energon Pub

by **megatran** » Wed Jun 11, 2025 10:46 pm

Emerje wrote:Well, Trump says his deal with China is done and it so far looks like a terrible deal for us.

US gets-
55% tariff on imports (up from 30%)
Mineral rights from China

China gets-
10% tariff on imports from the USA
Chinese students can attend US universities again

So basically things are even worse for US consumers and China gets a great deal on imports and education. Yes, Chinese factories will hurt from this, but there's still no sign of alternatives to Chinese manufacturing for US consumers. Great deal for US billionaires who not only get to sell to China at a low tax rate but also get access to rare minerals to make the stuff they're selling there. But this deal seriously screw average Americans. It's also been pointed out that these minerals come from the notorious western region of Xinjiang known for their prison and slave labor mining. Republicans that are wrongly claiming Chinese factories are sweatshops as an excuse to move manufacturing out of China should be outraged over this, but they wont be since it's Trump's plan and he doesn't care so why should they?

Emerje

On another US Transformers fansite (which I won't name), you will get an automatic ban just mere mentioning the T word(s). Glad we can have a mature discussion here, including posting factual news updates.

There are no winners in a trade/tariff war for the ordinary folks.

I'm not even from the US, but I've been asked by my work to look at alternative supply arrangements (secondary & tertiary suppliers) as assurance of supply strategy should preferred suppliers go bust for whatever reason. I already have a full workload thankyou very much.

News Credits: 100 · by **-Kanrabat-** » Thu Jun 12, 2025 4:40 am

I work at a factory where we mainly use steel and aluminum to create and build our machines. At first, the Trump tariffs slowed our work to a crawl for a month or two. But my competent boss found some work-around and now, we are so swamped with work, we have trouble to keep up!

So, if people know what they are doing, I'm sure everything will balance itself out.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Mon Jun 16, 2025 4:32 am

-Kanrabat- wrote:I work at a factory where we mainly use steel and aluminum to create and build our machines. At first, the Trump tariffs slowed our work to a crawl for a month or two. But my competent boss found some work-around and now, we are so swamped with work, we have trouble to keep up!

So, if people know what they are doing, I'm sure everything will balance itself out.

Yeah, though right now it just sounds like companies are willing to move their factories from country to country as many times as it takes to avoid moving to the US. They seem to be banking on being able to outlast the Trump presidency.

Emerje

News Credits: 2 · by **Nemesis Destron** » Fri Jun 27, 2025 6:58 pm

I was looking at the art for this thread and credit to the person or persons for the depiction of Trump, I think (please be listening :HASBRO:

) the Powers should consider a type of Fans project/release like for Windblade and the creation of a figure based on the image for this thread and be a Terrorcon :-P

I feel.

Well this can only be a win/win situation for fans given current events and to have a figure representing/resembling Trump and the tariffs that affect us fans....'nuff said! :VEHI:

by **megatran** » Wed Jul 02, 2025 11:23 pm

Vietnam goods to the US to be slapped with 20% tariff. Many of Hasbro Transformers toys nowadays come from Vietnam.

Apologies if providing news that is factual, apolitical & on topic breaks the rules here. Another Transformers site that I won't name locked the thread as soon as it popped up.

by **megatran** » Thu Jul 17, 2025 11:16 pm

I was watching the news and it talked about inflation rising in the US. Toys, of all things, got a mention.

MyFigureCollection.net collection · by **Emerje** » Wed Jul 23, 2025 7:39 am

Some much needed good news just came in, though nothing is final and it's full of Trumps inability to give details when tweeting. It looks like Trump signed a deal where tariffs on Japanese imports will only be 15% (after threats of 25%) in exchange for Japan investing $550 billion (where? In what?) in the US and more US exports to Japan including automobiles and rice. Now don't get me wrong, it's 5% more than the 10% deal we had before, but since Trump is simple minded this sounds like he's sticking to his "blanket tariff" plan so things like car parts and steel imports will see a drop in tariffs. Hopefully details are good and we (or I) aren't getting excited over nothing.

Emerje