Ask HN: How will Trump tarrifs affect remote workers outside US?

There's always good news and a silver lining. We've been saying for years that BigTech is the cybersecurity threat. Working toward European cloud migration has been like pulling teeth as so many companies felt locked-in to insecure US products. In just two months Trump has done more to motivate abandonment of Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta products than any hackers or criminals in the past 25 years.

h4ck_th3_pl4n3t · 5 months ago

This.

If you are a European startup and were considered "only an alternative" to a bigger competitor...now's the time to push it out and be seen for it. There's a huge demand right now, and it won't easily go away for the next (remaining) 4 years. The civil war that in my opinion is unavoidable won't make it better for US stability.

StefanBatory · 5 months ago

A reneval for sysadmins and devops in EU for the next few years? :P

BjoernKW · 5 months ago

Moving towards a "European cloud" remains an eternal pipe dream, simply because such a thing doesn't exist, the reason being the EU actively regulating against businesses trying to innovate in this and other seminal areas.

nonrandomstring · 5 months ago

You're right that a "European Cloud" has been a 'dream' for a long time. But I don't see the reasons you cite (regulation) as a cause of impediment.

And you slightly mis-parsed my words. A migration of cloud services from US providers isn't the same as to a "European Cloud". Canada, Australia, India, Vietnam, South Africa... there's a whole world of nominally friendly and economically viable suppliers out there. What matters is moving from Microsoft, AWS, Google and other services that cannot be considered "safe" any longer.

I notice from your profile you're an AWS disciple. You must know AWS want to build a "Euro Sovereign" division? Not that I think it will be successful, but look at which way the wind is blowing.

palata · 5 months ago

> the reason being the EU actively regulating against businesses trying to innovate

Oh come on, can we stop with that? Not having regulations results in quasi-monopolies and oligarchs. Preaching against regulation is only worth it if you are Google, Amazon & Co. Regulations don't prevent fairly big companies from existing.

Maybe the lack of regulations in the US pushes EU companies to move there. But right now maybe non-Americans will start looking for non-US alternatives, and that's good.

bruce511 · 5 months ago

I'm interested in your question.

I'm not sure they will directly affect remote workers. Or at least the mechanism seems unclear.

Tariffs are currently collected at a port of entry by Customs (CBP staff.)

Since remote work does not flow through a port, its not clear who would collect this tax (presumably your US employer) or how they would submit it for payment.

In other words I'm not aware if remote work is classed as an "import" , or how it would be collected and submitted.

I am keen to hear of any actual legal opinions in this space.

Uzmanali · 5 months ago

If the U.S. adds more tariffs, some companies may not want to hire workers from other countries. i work online for different places, so if one country changes its rules, i still have work.

last time the rules changed, some companies hired people from their own countries instead. if this happens again, it may be harder to find jobs in the U.S.

to be safe, i try to work with people from many places, not just one.

superconduct123 · 5 months ago

Just one anecdote, but I heard of one company hiring more in Canada as the salaries are much cheaper with the exchange rate