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New Zealand is, as far as I'm aware, one of the few Western countries that doesn't subsidise agriculture or protect it with tariffs on competing imports. (We s

New Zealand is, as far as I'm aware, one of the few Western countries that doesn't subsidise agriculture or protect it with tariffs on competing imports. (We still subsidise it in other ways, like Crown funded R&D, although that's viewable as an investment, especially around methane emission reductions, but also implicitly subsidise it by not making polluting industries pay for their externalities, but these are minuscule in comparison to the market interventions present overseas). The US, UK, and EU make heavy usage of both subsidies and tariffs. The IMF is renowned for their endorsement of "free market for thee, but not for me".

thebooktocome 4y ago
The remoteness of New Zealand is effectively already a tariff on many imported goods.
- EdwardDiego 4y ago
  Yet when we removed tariffs, nearly all local manufacturing was immediately out-competed. We haven't manufactured cars here since the early 80s when tariffs were dropped, although to be fair, by then it was Japanese companies manufacturing cars here, not Kiwis in particular, our automotive industry is ahem renowned for the Trekka[0], Duzgo[1], and of course, the Bob Semple "Tank"[2]. Likewise, our clothing manufacturing industry has shrunk to a few niche companies that focus on export. When subsidies and tariffs were removed from the agricultural sector, it forced quite a few farmers into bankruptcy and there were some suicides. It caused very real pain, but it now means that our agricultural industry is strong enough to be competitive in markets where their domestic producer competitors are getting significant assistance from the government. Our neoliberal phase did a lot of harm, but there was some good. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trekka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trekka [1]: https://spiritmagazine.co.nz/2017/04/04/it-duzgo/ https://spiritmagazine.co.nz/2017/04/04/it-duzgo/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Semple_tank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Semple_tank

thebooktocome 4y ago

The remoteness of New Zealand is effectively already a tariff on many imported goods.

EdwardDiego 4y ago
Yet when we removed tariffs, nearly all local manufacturing was immediately out-competed. We haven't manufactured cars here since the early 80s when tariffs were dropped, although to be fair, by then it was Japanese companies manufacturing cars here, not Kiwis in particular, our automotive industry is ahem renowned for the Trekka[0], Duzgo[1], and of course, the Bob Semple "Tank"[2]. Likewise, our clothing manufacturing industry has shrunk to a few niche companies that focus on export. When subsidies and tariffs were removed from the agricultural sector, it forced quite a few farmers into bankruptcy and there were some suicides. It caused very real pain, but it now means that our agricultural industry is strong enough to be competitive in markets where their domestic producer competitors are getting significant assistance from the government. Our neoliberal phase did a lot of harm, but there was some good. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trekka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trekka [1]: https://spiritmagazine.co.nz/2017/04/04/it-duzgo/ https://spiritmagazine.co.nz/2017/04/04/it-duzgo/ [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Semple_tank https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Semple_tank