Please correct me if I have this wrong, I believe Trump has on multiple occasions suggested that he would implement 10% tariffs on all imported goods and 60% tariffs on Chinese imports, in order to bring in trillions of dollars to fund the government.
I’m not looking to discuss the merits of the plan, because I think that any person who has opened the cover of an Economics textbook would know it’s a disastrously bad idea, and I’m not debating economic theory with people who don’t understand how tariffs work.
My question is have any pundits or Op/Ed’s or other politicians come out and argued in support of tariffs this high? His supporters seem to be all over his other policy ideas, but I can’t think of anyone who has gotten on TV and said that 60% tariffs on stuff is a grand idea.
It may just be my liberal bubble talking, of course.
Before income tax tariffs were a major source of revenue for the US government. It’s an old idea that doesn’t work the same when you have a global economy based upon free trade.
But it does have its place in a mix of things like trade treaties, favored nation trading status and outright embargos. I actually don’t have an issue with the present tariff on China.
Since Biden did not remove the blanket tariff that Trump imposed on China goods I guess the democrates don’t oppose tariffs either other than it was Trump policy (so it must be bad!). In fact the Biden adminstration wants has imposed an additional tariff on Chineses electric vehicles, which I also support due to Chinas unfair trade practices of substadizing their EV production and trying to dump them at unfairly low prices overseas.
No. The most charitable takes I have seen from right-wing sources are along the lines of “he doesn’t really mean it, it’s just tough talk to put China in its place to negotiate better deals”.
Specific tariffs designed to target specific bad actors (dumping, violation of previous trade agreements) or to normalize externalities (environmental impact being a big one) are very different from blanket tariffs. I haven’t seen a single politician or economist that supports the blanket 10-20% tariff on all imported goods.
It depends on how you define blanket. The tariff Trump imposed on China was a blanket tariff of all Chinese goods. The tariff Biden is proposing is a specific tariff on one key industry. The democrates are not opposing either one.
But you are correct that a blanket tariff on all nations isn’t supported, as it would violate just about all existing agreements.
I define it as covering all imported goods, regardless of the source. I think that’s the standard meaning of a blanket tariff. That certainly seems to be what Trump means when he says it, to the extent I am able to parse his understanding of how tariffs and trade policy work.
Yes, this is a good point. Current economic opinion is that free trade raises all boats. But that is not necessarily a universal view, and historically wasn’t always the dominant one.
There is certainly an argument that can be made in favor of industry protection in critical areas (defense, infrastructure, medicine) or areas of rapid new development. And of course for domestic workers protectionism might still be favored - paying higher prices when you have a decent manufacturing job is more palatable than lower prices when you have a shitty job, even if economically speaking the second might be a better financial state.
So while I’m hard-pressed to find any trained economists that think a 20% universal tariff is a good idea it’s certainly not hard at all to find lots of voters that like it (not a majority, but a lot - 40% of GOP voters in some polls). And remember, to a good chunk of Trump’s base the fact that economists and guys like Mitch McConnell hate the idea is a point in its favor.
Politically it’s kind of win-win. Some voters love it on it’s face and will vote for you because they want it to happen. And the ones that don’t like it assume you are just bluffing and won’t actually do it, so they can vote for you on the rhetoric (“Tough on China!” “Protect American Jobs!”) without actually worrying too much about the potential economic fallout.
Just for the sake of argument, let’s pretend that a blanket tariff will bring in trillions in free money from the other countries. The expected response is retaliatory tariffs on USA-made products. Why, with these in place, would we not have to give the trillions back?
I imagine nobody ever asks the America-hating fuckstick that one because they don’t feel like pretending the basic premise is anything but laughable.
Pray tell us more about what he means!