Quote:
Originally Posted by Topspinmo
So, why do they tariff out products? I consider tariff manipulation of market where is’t not free trade it’s unbalanced trade which mean it’s unfair trade. Only fair trade is zero tariff and zero trumped up taxes on imports. Time world gets in balance, USA has carried world long enough. What did we get for it. Cheated.
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You seem to be confusing a few different concepts.
- Zero tariffs would be nice. There might be a good reason to have a specific, non-zero tariff but that would be on a case-by-case basis
- A trade imbalance can be an indication of supply and demand, not unfair practices. The US will ALWAYS have trade imbalance on bananas and will ALWAYS have a trade imbalance with Lesotho. The former is because the US does not grow bananas (at least not in quantity) so we will always import more than we export. The latter is because Lesotho is a particularly poor country that exports diamonds and there is no way that they will ever import as much product from the US as they export diamonds to us.
- By "trumped up taxes" do you mean the current criticism of VAT? If products manufactured in their country are charged a VAT when sold then how is it a "trumped up tax" if products imported to their country are charged the same tax? Should a country only tax only homegrown products and not imports? Does it feel like a "trumped up tax" when Florida charges sales tax on imported products? Should Florida only charge sales tax on US-made products and not imported products?
- How is the US "carrying the world?" The US Govt isn't spending a lot of money on bananas or diamonds or iPhones or imported autos, the US citizen consumer is. How does my buying an iPhone translate to the US Govt carrying the world?
If there are unreasonable barriers to trade then absolutely, fix those. A disparity in wealth or in population (there are more of us to buy things) or a higher standard of living (our wage rate is higher and taxes are lower) are not trade barriers that should be defeated, they are successes that should be celebrated.