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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