A foreground item in the news in these last days has been President Trump’s announcement of tariffs on various goods. As with everything else he says or does, (or, for that matter, anything that any prominent person says or does these days), there has been pugnacious disagreement.
I’m not going to comment on this one. Why? Because I don’t know enough to have an opinion. The question of trade protections — subsidies, tariffs, and negotiated preferences — has existed since trade between nations began, and has been an important part of American history since the continent was settled. It has always been the subject of contention and disagreement. Right now I’ve been reading the complete correspondence between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and it was a difficult topic for them too, often raised in their letters.
Ludwig Wittgenstein famously said: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.” That’s my position on tariffs. Sorry to disappoint.
If you know more about this than I do, readers, your comments are welcome.
2 Comments
All I know is that America used to work pretty good a century ago, and Sweden worked pretty well fifty years ago.
A homogeneous, healthy country can take tariffs or leave them, as they can most economic policies. If tariffs help America get back to sanity, they’re a good thing.
So many of these trade deals the US enters revolve around how much access country X gets to our market vs how little we get to theirs. The terms for each party in a multi lateral agreement are usually kept secret so each country can’t know how much favoritism another one gets.
On a macro economic view, the numbers always show that free trade is a net positive. However, within those numbers, many industries and communities that support them are devastated by these deals. Where I live in North Carolina, our textile and furniture industries were nearly ruined by international trade deals. Many towns have not and will not bounce back. I usually back the concept of free trade in general but my support is tempered by the reality nearby of its consequences.
With Trump though, we never really know what the goal might be as he tends to misdirect.