Subsidizing lettermail from poor countries seems reasonable. I might have to work for half an hour to earn enough to pay postage to anywhere in the world; it's

Subsidizing lettermail from poor countries seems reasonable. I might have to work for half an hour to earn enough to pay postage to anywhere in the world; it's undesirable for the recipient to have to pay three months' wages to send me a reply. Subsidizing businesses abroad seems less desirable, especially if it costs us millions of dollars a year. That should just be part of the price of the good, whether or not it goes through a US intermediary. Instead we have this weird system where purchases directly from China are subsidized by taxes, but domestic purchases are "full price".