Reciprocal Tariffs, YouTube TV/Paramount Negotiations, and Modi-Trump Meeting
Media Hits, 2/13/25
I’m on NewsMax this morning for my usual segment. This time, talking about the ideas of reciprocal tariffs and the YouTube TV/Paramount negotiations.
On to the talking points!
Reciprocal Tariffs
Link: https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/113996410955252842
Trump has said repeatedly “if they charge us, we charge them.”
Given his understanding of tariffs, this makes total sense
Unfortunately, his understanding is wrong.
I mean, if I walked into the grocery store and saw the manager angrily take a $20 bill from a register and light it on fire, I wouldn’t respond with, “oh yea, well watch THIS!” and light a $20 bill from my wallet on fire. I’d think it was weird.
Tariffs are paid by the consumers and producers of the country imposing them, not the other way around.
When e.g. China imposes a tariff on US goods, it’s the Chinese workers and consumers that pay it, not us.
Why we should make Americans worse off through oppressive trade policy just because China is doing it to their people is beyond me.
YouTube TV/Paramount Negotiations
Link: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/13/media/paramount-youtube-contract-renewal/index.html
So, these two are negotiating the terms under which Paramount gets to stream some of their content on the platform, YouTube TV
As a YouTube TV subscriber who likes to watch e.g. CBS, I certainly have a vested interest in these two coming to an agreement.
This is remarkably similar to the YouTube TV/Disney kerfuffle from 2021 or so.
The key to any negotiation, whether it be in the corporate setting or the international trade setting, is finding a win-win proposition where both parties are made better off.
It’s clear to me that YouTube TV is better off partnering with Paramount than not.
Likewise, Paramount benefits from access to the YouTube TV platform.
So we know there’s scope for these two to work together.
The question is finding it.
Modi-Trump Meeting
They’re meeting about, you guessed it, tariffs and international trade policies.
Also energy policy will likely be discussed as will military defense.
These latter two are all well and good and insofar as the former leads to a reduction in trade barriers by both countries and between both countries, everyone will win.
So What Happened?
I was joined by Candy Valentino and Ben Weingarten on a panel, discussing the reciprocal tariffs that Trump will be announcing this afternoon. I went first and tried to set some of the tone.
My main point was to say, “look, can tariffs be used as a negotiating tool? Sure, but it’s much more limited as such than we might think. Insofar as Trump is using them for that purpose, I have no real issue. But if he wants to try to use them to raise revenues, though, he’s going to find that it’s much more difficult.”
Candy repeated some of the familiar talking points, which I’m going to have to write something on as a response. “We need to make sure that trade is balanced, that the US isn’t being taken advantage of, and that things are fair.”
Ben was much more measured and, I think, agreed with me that the end goal of all of this should be to lower barriers to trade. But it seemed like he believes that both countries imposing high tariffs is better than us facing high tariffs and imposing low tariffs. I don’t think that’s accurate.