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It doesn’t help that the person who imposed these tariffs was indeed claiming the cost would be borne by foreign countries, and the political party in power is
by dahart 9mo ago
It doesn’t help that the person who imposed these tariffs was indeed claiming the cost would be borne by foreign countries, and the political party in power is repeating the claim ad nauseam on every channel imaginable. It’s a misleading claim, but OTOH the point of making imports more expensive for Americans is to push them to prefer US made products, and if that happens and imports go down then at some level it’s true that tariffs cost other countries. The biggest most important question is whether that’s actually happening - whether US consumers are switching to US-made brands - whether the US even makes alternatives to most of the imports we’re now taxing - whether demand for imports is dropping - or whether the politicians are just collecting a lot more tax money and raising the cost of living.
One big problem with arguing about this is that it will take many years for the effects of the tariffs to settle. If there’s new opportunity for local competition of goods that we’ve been importing, new companies can’t form and meet that demand over night, it will take longer than the president has to see that succeed, which certainly hasn’t stopped him from claiming it already has.
- shaky-carrousel 9mo agoIt won't cost other countries because what is not sold to the US is sold everywhere else.
- dahart 9mo agoThat’s certainly possible, but by no means guaranteed, right? If someone selling goods to the US is selling out (supply-limited) the rest of the global market might absorb the US share. But one might wonder if that was the case, why would they be selling to the US in the first place. I would, by default, assume that losing the US market reduces demand for any given non-US export, and the amount that it hurts depends on how big the US market was compared to the non-US market. This isn’t the first time tariffs have been used in a country to push purchasing preferences. The problem is that it hurts them and it hurts us, it’s just a net economic drain and doesn’t effectively achieve the local economic boost that some want it to, especially in today’s global economy where trade has become so integral that we no longer produce many of the products we buy, and therefore tariffs can’t fix. “There is near unanimous consensus among economists that tariffs are self-defeating” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tariff
- NetMageSCW 9mo agoNot all things are that fungible. Cars intended for the US won’t be sold elsewhere. And in a mature market, no new customers exist elsewhere to sell to.
- shaky-carrousel 9mo agoCars intended for the US can be sold to South America.
- deepsquirrelnet 9mo agoThat was one claim about their purpose among many others. But it doesn’t make sense either. Will America start growing coffee? Will we suddenly develop capacity for all of the raw materials and processing we require to make everything in-house? Tariffs rates by this administration are capricious and punitive, not targeted and strategic.