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Tariffs are supported by both left and right for different reasons. People like Trump represent national/regional industrial interests so they want local produc
by mateo1 8y ago
Tariffs are supported by both left and right for different reasons. People like Trump represent national/regional industrial interests so they want local production and less competition from abroad.
Leftists (in the european, non-neoliberal sense) want to empower the local workers and economies. The resulting action is the same. And it makes sense from a geopolitical perspective too.
There are valid reasons not to implement tariffs too, but having completely unrestricted trade imbalances is a bad idea no matter how you look at it.
- rswail 8y agoThe opposite of tariffs is not "completely unrestricted trade imbalances". The opposite of tariffs is common quality, safety, labor, ecological impact requirements. Tariffs are just a tax on one part of the local population to subsidise another part. Tariffs are paid by the importer, not the exporter. For the exporter, not being able to export to a particular country, if there are other markets available, is a hindrance, not a killer. The US is a big market for Chinese solar panels, but so is the rest of the world. China was a big customer for US soybeans, now it buys none. This has ruined US farmers, but the global soybean market has taken up that slack. Tariffs are dumb, clunky, 19th century tools for a global, multinational world. We need to accelerate not just the flow of capital, but also of labor, we need to make sure that the benefits of development are shared, not "trickled down". We need to bring the 3rd world to the level of the 1st, not drag the 1st down to the 3rd. It's not a zero-sum game.