Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Ed, can you hear me? I'm clear, okay, Shannon,
are we good? Okay?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
All right, very very good, all right, Sorry, sorry for that.
Folks is live radio and you're communicating with people around
the world using different platforms and you sort things out,
all right. So, since we've got to add on right now,
I would like to introduce Ed Britzwihee is VP of
International Trade at the Consumer Technology Association, which is the
(00:28):
largest technology trade association. Their website is c t A
Dot Tech c t A dot Tech.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And so, first of.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
All, Ed, thanks so much for for making time for us.
I know you're a busy dude, and I'm looking forward
to this conversation, even though perhaps we're gonna be talking
about things that aren't that much aren't.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
That much fun, but we gotta we gotta do what
we gotta do.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
So in the last well month and especially in the
last few days.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Technology stocks, which don't.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Represent everything about the world of technology, but they are
a proxy for something at least, have gotten hurt pretty
badly based on some of the stuff that's going on
with tariff policy, with trade policy right now. And I
just want to get a sense from you as to
why and how the tariffs are particularly important in technology.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, thank you, Ross, it's great to be here. Technology
is a global enterprise. There are countries all over the
world that contribute to the innovation of technology products, their development,
their manufacturing. And if you think about a laptop or
a smartphone or a monitor, they.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Consist of many inputs.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They consist of raw materials, and those are made in
countries all over the world, hundreds if not thousands of inputs.
And so when we think about tariffs, we're thinking about
attacks that American businesses importers pay to bring that product
into the country, and then ultimately that that tax might
(02:09):
be passed.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
On through the supply chain all the way down to
the consumer.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So all of these tariffs and potentially the retaliation just
adds costs on top of cost on top of cost.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
So that is not good for the consumer ultimately.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
All right, So, my listeners know how much I despise
these tariffs and the trade wars and stuff, and I
know and you're against them too, So I think it
would be boring if you and I just agreed. So
for purposes of this conversation, sure, I'm gonna play devil's advocate.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And I'm gonna make I'm gonna make the best.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Arguments that I can for for.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
For the tariffs, all right, I'm.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Gonna make the best arguments that I can, and you
tell me what's wrong with it, Okay, And it's more
it's more of a long term conversation. But I'll just
play you know, one of Trump's economic advisors, So, ed,
we understand that this is in the short term going
to raise the costs on some of these chips, but
right now we are far too dependent on foreign countries
(03:20):
to be making all these chips, and we really should
be making a lot more of this stuff in the
United States. So by doing this, we're going to accelerate
production in the United States and when that happens, prices
will come back down.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Well, some of our.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Best allies in the world also make chips, like Japan
or South Korea or Taiwan. These are really important countries
for the United States international security.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
So by putting.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Tariffs on chips that come from those countries, that actually
has counter to our national security interest because it alienates
our relationships with those countries, and you know, they may
consider that it's their best interest to you closer to China,
who I thought was our adversary.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
All right, My next question is not in that sort
of debate spirit. This is just a factual question for you.
So you mentioned all these places generally in.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Asia where a lot of chips come from.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
My understanding but I probably know only enough to be
dangerous and not enough to be helpful, is that China
makes an immense number of chips, although many of them
tend to be a little bit lower in the value
chain and not the more advanced chips like especially the
Taiwan is famous for, but some.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Other places as well.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So is that right, and if so, how should we
think about the differences in trade between US in China
on technology versus US and all those other Asian countries
on technology.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
It's very true that China has been increasing its capacity
to make what is called legacy chips or foundational chips.
These are that are not at the leading edge. They
might not be as small. And we have said that
China's subsidization of its industry, the support that a government
its government provides to a ship industry, that's not something
(05:14):
that is in the best interests in the United States.
But there's different ways to address that problem, like making
our industry more competitive and supporting the construction of fabs
to build foundational chips in the United States, or working
with our allies like I suggested earlier. So what you
(05:34):
have to understand is that there are thousands and thousands
of consumer technology products. Some of them might contain multiple
chips from multiple countries. So what you want to do
is shift that use away from PRC chips towards the
chips that.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Are being made by the United States and our allies.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And that is something that the US government should focus
on instead of just whacking us over the head with tariffs.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So you have the Chips Act, and it sounds like
that's something maybe you're in favor of.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I don't want to put words in your mouth, but
one of the things.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
That I struggle with as a as a capitalist and
as a lowercase L libertarian is that it seems to
me that if the most economically efficient way to produce
chips or anything else were to do it in America,
then it would be being done in America. And so
my concern is that the only way to get more
(06:31):
of these chips to be made in America is by
massive subsidies that just pile debt onto.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
My children's futures.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So I'm part of me thinks that would be nice
to make some of this stuff in America, but not
at what I think is going to be the additional
marginal cost.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You're right, I mean, there could be a higher costs
if you just keep subsidizing. But there are other factors
that really go into any manufacturing operation, whether it's chips
or otherwise. And that's regulation, right, the process by which
you permit the manufacturing operation, the construction of the plant,
(07:12):
the production of the good.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
So that is one aspect, but you also.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Need really great transportation and infrastructure around those facilities in
order to get the product to market and also to
bring the inputs into manufacture of the product.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
You need skilled workforce, you.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Need high levels of education, you need robust research and development.
They're protection the intellectual property, upholding, the rule of law,
all of that factors in So just by throwing incentives
at the problem, that might help, but you need all
these other things too.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You need to create the right ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
And that's what policymakers in the United States needs to
focus on, is creating the ecosystem as opposed to just
using one tool or another we're talking with.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Ed britzwas from the Consumer Technology Association, the largest trade
association CTA dot tech.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
All right, let me follow up on that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Do you think there are changes to government policy and
regulation that would incentivize t SMC and American companies like
Intel and others to do more chip manufacturing in the
United States without having to give.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Them just straight up cash handouts.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean, look, I think both our parties in the
United States have recognized that.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
It just takes too long to get these projects implemented. Right,
we need to accelerate that. If we want to make
more in America, we have to get rid of the
red tape. That is in our interests make it easier.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Now, granted, we have to be cognizant of environmental impacts,
but we can do that. We don't necessarily have to
say no no, no, worry about the environment. We have
to priorize both. But getting rid of the red tape
is I think priority number one. But every time I
talk to one of our member companies, they tell us
it's the workforce. We need access to good educated, skilled labor,
(09:13):
both high skilled.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
And low skilled, and you need a lot of it.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
So if we're reducing our labor force in the United States.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
That's also not good for manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
You know, there's some people that say, let's just automate everything,
but you still need people, right, you need really smart
educated people to do this work.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, that is a great point up and down the
skill level of a labor force. And with unemployment at
only forty two percent, and I realized labor participation is
a little bit low, and a bunch of people came
back into the This gets a little nerdy, you know
for listeners, but we had a fair number of people
come back into the workforce in whatever period the last
(09:54):
report was for, which is part of the reason unemployment
ticked up a tenth of a percent. Wasn't so much
that people lost jobs, is that more people started looking
for work who hadn't been looking for work.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
But I do wonder ed, with unemployment that.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Low, do we actually have available people in the workforce
to staff what Donald Trump perceives as a potential significant
increase in manufacturing in the United States.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
So I'll just talk about for consumer tech, we did
a study on this exact problem in twenty twenty three.
Let's just say Ross, for example, you wanted to move
all the production of smartphones or laptops or tablets for
the US market to the United States, amongst other consumer
tech products, you would need a ten x increase in
(10:41):
labor compared to what we have today, and that labor
force just doesn't exist right now.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
So it's not just the amount of labor.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
You have to prepare that labor force for their engagement
in the manufacturing and so that means partnerships with universities, community,
local governments. It's a full court press across all the
groups of stakeholders that want to do this.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
So again, not to put words in your mouth, but
I will, and then you can tell me if I
put the wrong words in your mouth. It sounds to
me like you're saying America with the right set of
policy incentives and changes to education and perhaps other workforce
changes like maybe more immigration, could produce a lot more technology,
(11:31):
but not tomorrow and not in and And that's part
of the reason that technology stocks are getting so crushed
on these tariffs, because it's trying to force a change
in the way the industry is structured in a time
frame that is absolutely impossible for the industry to manage.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So what did I say, right and what did I
say wrong?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Well, you said a lot that's right ross the timeframe
is way off right.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
If you think that by imposing.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
These tariffs like a forty six percent tariff on all
imports from Vietnam, which touches on consumer tech, a fIF
you know, thirty four percent or higher tariff in all
imports from China, that that manufacturing is going to come
to the United States overnight and all these jobs will
be created. That is way out of whack. It is
going to take years and solid planning and preparation and
(12:25):
focus on achieving these objectives, and the tariffs by themselves will.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Not achieve that objective and it won't do it in
the timeframe.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, I look, I believe that I have about a
minute left here, and you probably don't want to go
too much into detail talking about one company, but I'm
going to use it as an example. I was listening
to one of the financial news networks this morning and
they were talking with a well respected prominent technology at
tech stock analyst guy who's been around a long time,
(12:54):
very very well respected. He said he thinks that a
thousand dollars iPhone, if it were required that it be
made entirely in the United States would cost three thousand dollars.
Now I'm not asking you to say you agree or
disagree with that number, but kind of sort of as
an order of magnitude, do you think that is a
(13:15):
potential risk for the American consumer that if we start
trying to move all this stuff to the US, even
over a somewhat longer timeframe, that the prices of stuff
will go up so much that it'll actually reduce demand
for the stuff your industry sells.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
This is our biggest concern ross.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
We did another study on this when we looked at
the president's campaign proposals on tariffs. We did a study
that we released in January, and the biggest takeaway is
that if you oppose these tariffs and you increase the
costs of trade, that you are going to decrease sales.
And so if the idea is just make it all
the United States, it's too expensive and people won't buy
(13:55):
the product. They're going to hold onto their smartphones, laptops, tablets,
video game consoles for much much longer, and the market
for these products just will evaporate.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
So we need to find affordable ways.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
To work with our trading partners, our allies, you know,
countries like Vietnam, India, Mexico, to make products in a
more affordable way for US consumers, so.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
That we have a great environment for innovation, and you know,
we bridge the digital divide.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, and just for listeners, you know, we're talking about
tech here, but the concept that Ed just described applies
to lots of things. For example, if the price of
an average car goes up five thousand dollars, right, if
a forty thousand dollars car is now a forty five
thousand dollars car, a lot of people are going to
just keep their current cars, and they're going to hold
(14:43):
them for a year longer, or two years longer, or
three years longer, and you're going to see a reduction
in sales of vehicles. And I do expect that to
happen just the same way Ed would expect it to
happen in technology.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
If we stay on this path, Ed Brits was then Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
One more thing that is lower sales tax receipts for
local governments if there's less sales by the.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Way, yeah, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
There's there's so many tangents to this and they're all important.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I don't I don't.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Use the word tangent to diminish the importance. It's just
one thing leads to another, leads to another. Ed Brits
was VP of International Trade at the Consumer Technology Association.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Great conversation. Ed, will definitely do it again.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
I would love to thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Ross, all right, thank you,
All right, Ed, can you hear me? I'm clear, okay, Shannon,
are we good? Okay?
Speaker 2 (00:06):
All right, very very good, all right, Sorry, sorry for that.
Folks is live radio and you're communicating with people around
the world using different platforms and you sort things out,
all right. So, since we've got to add on right now,
I would like to introduce Ed Britzwihee is VP of
International Trade at the Consumer Technology Association, which is the
(00:28):
largest technology trade association. Their website is c t A
Dot Tech c t A dot Tech.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
And so, first of.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
All, Ed, thanks so much for for making time for us.
I know you're a busy dude, and I'm looking forward
to this conversation, even though perhaps we're gonna be talking
about things that aren't that much aren't.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
That much fun, but we gotta we gotta do what
we gotta do.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
So in the last well month and especially in the
last few days.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Technology stocks, which don't.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Represent everything about the world of technology, but they are
a proxy for something at least, have gotten hurt pretty
badly based on some of the stuff that's going on
with tariff policy, with trade policy right now. And I
just want to get a sense from you as to
why and how the tariffs are particularly important in technology.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Well, thank you, Ross, it's great to be here. Technology
is a global enterprise. There are countries all over the
world that contribute to the innovation of technology products, their development,
their manufacturing. And if you think about a laptop or
a smartphone or a monitor, they.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Consist of many inputs.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
They consist of raw materials, and those are made in
countries all over the world, hundreds if not thousands of inputs.
And so when we think about tariffs, we're thinking about
attacks that American businesses importers pay to bring that product
into the country, and then ultimately that that tax might
(02:09):
be passed.
Speaker 4 (02:11):
On through the supply chain all the way down to
the consumer.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
So all of these tariffs and potentially the retaliation just
adds costs on top of cost on top of cost.
Speaker 4 (02:22):
So that is not good for the consumer ultimately.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
All right, So, my listeners know how much I despise
these tariffs and the trade wars and stuff, and I
know and you're against them too, So I think it
would be boring if you and I just agreed. So
for purposes of this conversation, sure, I'm gonna play devil's advocate.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And I'm gonna make I'm gonna make the best.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Arguments that I can for for.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
For the tariffs, all right, I'm.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Gonna make the best arguments that I can, and you
tell me what's wrong with it, Okay, And it's more
it's more of a long term conversation. But I'll just
play you know, one of Trump's economic advisors, So, ed,
we understand that this is in the short term going
to raise the costs on some of these chips, but
right now we are far too dependent on foreign countries
(03:20):
to be making all these chips, and we really should
be making a lot more of this stuff in the
United States. So by doing this, we're going to accelerate
production in the United States and when that happens, prices
will come back down.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
Well, some of our.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
Best allies in the world also make chips, like Japan
or South Korea or Taiwan. These are really important countries
for the United States international security.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
So by putting.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
Tariffs on chips that come from those countries, that actually
has counter to our national security interest because it alienates
our relationships with those countries, and you know, they may
consider that it's their best interest to you closer to China,
who I thought was our adversary.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
All right, My next question is not in that sort
of debate spirit. This is just a factual question for you.
So you mentioned all these places generally in.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Asia where a lot of chips come from.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
My understanding but I probably know only enough to be
dangerous and not enough to be helpful, is that China
makes an immense number of chips, although many of them
tend to be a little bit lower in the value
chain and not the more advanced chips like especially the
Taiwan is famous for, but some.
Speaker 1 (04:35):
Other places as well.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
So is that right, and if so, how should we
think about the differences in trade between US in China
on technology versus US and all those other Asian countries
on technology.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
It's very true that China has been increasing its capacity
to make what is called legacy chips or foundational chips.
These are that are not at the leading edge. They
might not be as small. And we have said that
China's subsidization of its industry, the support that a government
its government provides to a ship industry, that's not something
(05:14):
that is in the best interests in the United States.
But there's different ways to address that problem, like making
our industry more competitive and supporting the construction of fabs
to build foundational chips in the United States, or working
with our allies like I suggested earlier. So what you
(05:34):
have to understand is that there are thousands and thousands
of consumer technology products. Some of them might contain multiple
chips from multiple countries. So what you want to do
is shift that use away from PRC chips towards the
chips that.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
Are being made by the United States and our allies.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
And that is something that the US government should focus
on instead of just whacking us over the head with tariffs.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So you have the Chips Act, and it sounds like
that's something maybe you're in favor of.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
I don't want to put words in your mouth, but
one of the things.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
That I struggle with as a as a capitalist and
as a lowercase L libertarian is that it seems to
me that if the most economically efficient way to produce
chips or anything else were to do it in America,
then it would be being done in America. And so
my concern is that the only way to get more
(06:31):
of these chips to be made in America is by
massive subsidies that just pile debt onto.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
My children's futures.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So I'm part of me thinks that would be nice
to make some of this stuff in America, but not
at what I think is going to be the additional
marginal cost.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
You're right, I mean, there could be a higher costs
if you just keep subsidizing. But there are other factors
that really go into any manufacturing operation, whether it's chips
or otherwise. And that's regulation, right, the process by which
you permit the manufacturing operation, the construction of the plant,
(07:12):
the production of the good.
Speaker 4 (07:16):
So that is one aspect, but you also.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Need really great transportation and infrastructure around those facilities in
order to get the product to market and also to
bring the inputs into manufacture of the product.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
You need skilled workforce, you.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Need high levels of education, you need robust research and development.
They're protection the intellectual property, upholding, the rule of law,
all of that factors in So just by throwing incentives
at the problem, that might help, but you need all
these other things too.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
You need to create the right ecosystem.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
And that's what policymakers in the United States needs to
focus on, is creating the ecosystem as opposed to just
using one tool or another we're talking with.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Ed britzwas from the Consumer Technology Association, the largest trade
association CTA dot tech.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
All right, let me follow up on that.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Do you think there are changes to government policy and
regulation that would incentivize t SMC and American companies like
Intel and others to do more chip manufacturing in the
United States without having to give.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Them just straight up cash handouts.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
I mean, look, I think both our parties in the
United States have recognized that.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
It just takes too long to get these projects implemented. Right,
we need to accelerate that. If we want to make
more in America, we have to get rid of the
red tape. That is in our interests make it easier.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Now, granted, we have to be cognizant of environmental impacts,
but we can do that. We don't necessarily have to
say no no, no, worry about the environment. We have
to priorize both. But getting rid of the red tape
is I think priority number one. But every time I
talk to one of our member companies, they tell us
it's the workforce. We need access to good educated, skilled labor,
(09:13):
both high skilled.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
And low skilled, and you need a lot of it.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
So if we're reducing our labor force in the United States.
Speaker 4 (09:22):
That's also not good for manufacturing.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
You know, there's some people that say, let's just automate everything,
but you still need people, right, you need really smart
educated people to do this work.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, that is a great point up and down the
skill level of a labor force. And with unemployment at
only forty two percent, and I realized labor participation is
a little bit low, and a bunch of people came
back into the This gets a little nerdy, you know
for listeners, but we had a fair number of people
come back into the workforce in whatever period the last
(09:54):
report was for, which is part of the reason unemployment
ticked up a tenth of a percent. Wasn't so much
that people lost jobs, is that more people started looking
for work who hadn't been looking for work.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
But I do wonder ed, with unemployment that.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
Low, do we actually have available people in the workforce
to staff what Donald Trump perceives as a potential significant
increase in manufacturing in the United States.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
So I'll just talk about for consumer tech, we did
a study on this exact problem in twenty twenty three.
Let's just say Ross, for example, you wanted to move
all the production of smartphones or laptops or tablets for
the US market to the United States, amongst other consumer
tech products, you would need a ten x increase in
(10:41):
labor compared to what we have today, and that labor
force just doesn't exist right now.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
So it's not just the amount of labor.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
You have to prepare that labor force for their engagement
in the manufacturing and so that means partnerships with universities, community,
local governments. It's a full court press across all the
groups of stakeholders that want to do this.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
So again, not to put words in your mouth, but
I will, and then you can tell me if I
put the wrong words in your mouth. It sounds to
me like you're saying America with the right set of
policy incentives and changes to education and perhaps other workforce
changes like maybe more immigration, could produce a lot more technology,
(11:31):
but not tomorrow and not in and And that's part
of the reason that technology stocks are getting so crushed
on these tariffs, because it's trying to force a change
in the way the industry is structured in a time
frame that is absolutely impossible for the industry to manage.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
So what did I say, right and what did I
say wrong?
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Well, you said a lot that's right ross the timeframe
is way off right.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
If you think that by imposing.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
These tariffs like a forty six percent tariff on all
imports from Vietnam, which touches on consumer tech, a fIF
you know, thirty four percent or higher tariff in all
imports from China, that that manufacturing is going to come
to the United States overnight and all these jobs will
be created. That is way out of whack. It is
going to take years and solid planning and preparation and
(12:25):
focus on achieving these objectives, and the tariffs by themselves will.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
Not achieve that objective and it won't do it in
the timeframe.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, I look, I believe that I have about a
minute left here, and you probably don't want to go
too much into detail talking about one company, but I'm
going to use it as an example. I was listening
to one of the financial news networks this morning and
they were talking with a well respected prominent technology at
tech stock analyst guy who's been around a long time,
(12:54):
very very well respected. He said he thinks that a
thousand dollars iPhone, if it were required that it be
made entirely in the United States would cost three thousand dollars.
Now I'm not asking you to say you agree or
disagree with that number, but kind of sort of as
an order of magnitude, do you think that is a
(13:15):
potential risk for the American consumer that if we start
trying to move all this stuff to the US, even
over a somewhat longer timeframe, that the prices of stuff
will go up so much that it'll actually reduce demand
for the stuff your industry sells.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
This is our biggest concern ross.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
We did another study on this when we looked at
the president's campaign proposals on tariffs. We did a study
that we released in January, and the biggest takeaway is
that if you oppose these tariffs and you increase the
costs of trade, that you are going to decrease sales.
And so if the idea is just make it all
the United States, it's too expensive and people won't buy
(13:55):
the product. They're going to hold onto their smartphones, laptops, tablets,
video game consoles for much much longer, and the market
for these products just will evaporate.
Speaker 4 (14:04):
So we need to find affordable ways.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
To work with our trading partners, our allies, you know,
countries like Vietnam, India, Mexico, to make products in a
more affordable way for US consumers, so.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
That we have a great environment for innovation, and you know,
we bridge the digital divide.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Yeah, and just for listeners, you know, we're talking about
tech here, but the concept that Ed just described applies
to lots of things. For example, if the price of
an average car goes up five thousand dollars, right, if
a forty thousand dollars car is now a forty five
thousand dollars car, a lot of people are going to
just keep their current cars, and they're going to hold
(14:43):
them for a year longer, or two years longer, or
three years longer, and you're going to see a reduction
in sales of vehicles. And I do expect that to
happen just the same way Ed would expect it to
happen in technology.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
If we stay on this path, Ed Brits was then Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
One more thing that is lower sales tax receipts for
local governments if there's less sales by the.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Way, yeah, right, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
There's there's so many tangents to this and they're all important.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
I don't I don't.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Use the word tangent to diminish the importance. It's just
one thing leads to another, leads to another. Ed Brits
was VP of International Trade at the Consumer Technology Association.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Great conversation. Ed, will definitely do it again.
Speaker 4 (15:23):
I would love to thanks a lot.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Ross, all right, thank you,
The Ross Kaminsky Show News
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