Amusements wouldn't be in the same category as most of the stuff talked about so far, and pinball machines are a sub-category of amusements in trade terms. So complete stuff, whether DP or HomePin is probably going to be unaffected immediately, as Stern's machines to China would be. Some Chinese components to Stern will likely get hit.

But, don't make the mistake of thinking that any of this will definitely go ahead; even the original metals tariffs. This is first and foremost electioneering for the upcoming midterms, and may well be dead and buried before the end of the year.

In general economic terms, there's no prospect of the tariffs directly rebalancing trade - reducing US trade deficit w/ CN. What they will do is damage the US economy more than the rest of the world (which will also take a hit), and devalue the $, possibly quite considerably. Indirectly, that may help US exports in territories where they haven't just been hit with retaliatory tariffs - and devaluing the $ was a stated goal earlier on for Trump. But there's no guarantee that the price sensitivity of demand for imported goods in the US will be sufficient for a dropping $ not to result in a worsening deficit.

Dangerous games.

If this leaked so-called FART Act comes to pass, American industry (including pinball) and consumers (including pinheads) are going to be really, really screwed.

IMO it has the potential to cause a major recession in the US, and a pretty serious one globally.

It's cyclical because humans are stupid and don't learn, generally.

This could be the next big stupid.

I think it's most likely grand standing aimed at winning (ignorant) votes in the mid terms, and then 2020 elections, which will hopefully be abandoned before it's done too much damage.

If what you say is actually the case, and it goes ahead, it's likely to hasten the fall of the Petro$ and its status as the primary reserve currency, since it's likely to wreak absolute havoc on the US economy.

They are, though not to any great extent - the economies of scale that China has in this area are just too great. I think Taiwan is the main beneficiary. But the commotion about spying is likely to be a greater driver than tariffs. Supermicro just announced they were moving a major factory to Taiwan due to concerns about firmware security (not tariffs).

Meanwhile, despite the tariffs (I would actually argue partly because of), the US' trade deficit with China continues to balloon.