Trade deals are not a relief, they are a slap in the face

Well, it hasn't exactly been "90 deals in 90 days" as we were promised, but some countries are striking tariff deals with the USA. I'm sure they're all touting their deals as grand successes to their home base, but they haven't actually been very good (except for America).

The latest deal struck was with Japan, which settled with 15% across-the-board tariffs. Other countries that are now boasting of their good deals are Britain (10%), Vietnam (20%), Indonesia (20%) and the Philippines (19%). In almost all cases, imports of American goods into these  countries are completely free of tariffs, so in what respect these are "reciprocal tariffs" I have no idea. 

These are not even "real deals" in the way that most people.thinm of a deal, i.e. a binding, long-term contract. Detailed paperwork appears to be completely missing, and Trump can change them at any time, depending on how he feels when he gets up the morning. For example, Vietnam thought it had a pretty good deal, done and dusted, until Trump stepped in at the last minute and raised the rate.

But all of these countries obviously feel that they negotiated a good deal with Trump, compared to the 25%, 35%, 46%, random-number %, the US originally arbitrarily slapped them with. This, I suppose, is the "art of the deal" in Trump's mind, but essentially they are bully tariffs, "negotiated" through a mismatch of power. You could even call it gas-lighting. 

Each of these countries is now subject to much higher tariffs on the exports they rely on. They are also now operating in a global economy that is teetering on the brink of recession due to the constant uncertainty injected by the USA's trade policies. How even the MAGA crowd can see this as a win, I don't know.

The stock exchanges too seem confused by the goings-on. When a major exporter agrees a lower-than-expected-but-still-horrendous tariff, the exchanges throw a party and indexes tick upwards not downwards. Just because it could have been worse. I'm reading headlines like "Markets' trade deal euphoria ignores tariff reality". When Trump threatens to fire the chair of the US Federal Reserve, but then doesn't actually do it (TACO), the stock exchanges celebrate. What?! Logically, it makes no sense, but then who ever said that stock markets were logical.

Yes, the American public will feel most of the pain. But these export-driven countries will almost certainly also have to reduce their prices in order to make sales that were routine before, pushing down already thin margins in many cases, and possibly also squeezing already poverty-level labour rates, all so that already-rich America can become even richer.