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You fail to distinguish that the demand for the same type of good from country A may be much stronger than from country B, because of things like better prices, better quality, etc. Consumers from the country imposing the tariffs suffer either by settling for inferior quality or artificially higher prices. In doing so, tariffs tend to lower the standard of living of the tariff-imposing country.

The importing country, however, can go elsewhere to sell their goods. And also, generally, the country imposing the tariffs will eventually eliminate them because the tariffs harm their own economy.

Notice, even here, nobody likes tariffs. They were use here to intimidate Mexico into culling this immigration fiasco because Congress won’t do their freaking job and the American People haven’t woken up yet to their need and power of throwing the bums out.

Tariffs are illusory - a palliative measure to make people feel good about somebody doing something. But tariffs fail to solve the root causes of our economic woes which lie squarely at the feet of the federal government - the feds, not Mexico or China, are the root cause of our economic malaise.

Again, the threat of tariffs was/is real, but the effect hurts the tariff-imposing country more than the importing country who, as I said, can sell what they can with the imposing country (some demand may still be strong enough) and also go elsewhere to ply their trade.

"...as I said, can sell what they can with the imposing country (some demand may still be strong enough) and also go elsewhere to ply their trade."

Usually that may be the case. What you and others are forgetting is that the US is Mexico's largest and main trading partner. Mexico simply ships their goods via trucks legally across the border every day.

If punitive tariffs cause them to look elsewhere for buyers, Mexico won't have that same short distance low cost transport convenience. Central American countries buy didly squat because they can't afford it. South America? That would probably mean ships for large amounts. Think Mexico is going to start building more freighters? Canada? Forget it.

Pres. Trump knows this. The Mexican gov knows this. Hell, as a past small businessman in California, I know this. Who is going to buy their products in large quantities from long distances? It was a good move and is already paying dividends providing Mexico follows through with their southern border security.

I believe the best part is freezing the assets of the caravan organizers, which they just did. We've all known for some time that these are not spontaneous groups fleeing so-called oppression.

This migration crisis has now taken on a new dynamic. Word will get to Central America very quickly.

Yes, more to be done like e-Verify with harsh penalties and the frigging wall. Then there are our stupid asylum laws that won't be considered while dim/socialists are in power. Don't bother - I know the RINO's blew their chance.

> “Consumers from the country imposing the tariffs suffer either by settling for inferior quality or artificially higher prices. In doing so, tariffs tend to lower the standard of living of the tariff-imposing country.”

You have it backwards. Standard of living is determined largely by a country’s productivity and competitiveness, among other things; and it, in turn, determines what kind of goods people can afford, not the other way around. Consumers who can afford to pay more will not put up with inferior goods, tariffs or not.

And prices are largely determined by SUPPLY and DEMAND, not costs.

> “The importing country, however, can go elsewhere to sell their goods.”

Where else can China sell their 500B dollars’ worth of goods if not in the US? If there were new markets in which they could sell, don’t you think they would have already done so while they are selling to us? I’d say even 20% of the 500B would be hard to replace.

By the way, please don’t confuse others by repeatedly referring to “importing country” when you meant exporting country.

> “the country imposing the tariffs will eventually eliminate them because the tariffs harm their own economy.”

One will be hard-pressed to find any specific data to support the claim that imposing tariffs harms their own economy, since there are always winners and losers. But the case can easily be made that tariffs are useful tools that can serve many purposes.

> “Tariffs are illusory….
the threat of tariffs was/is real, but the effect hurts the tariff-imposing country more than the importing country”

Is the Mexico response to the tariff threat illusory?

Are the detrimental effects on the Chinese economy so far illusory? (By the way, Samsung is just starting to lay off workers in their last factory in China, having closed the other factory last December.)

It is very curious that you keep asserting that tariffs are a hoax and illusory while ignoring the tremendous results real tariffs on China and threatened tariffs on Mexico have already achieved for us. I doubt Milton Friedman will do anyone any good if they are not even interested in honestly looking at the real world cases unfolding before their eyes.

> “But tariffs fail to solve the root causes of our economic woes which lie squarely at the feet of the federal government”

Questions:
What do you think is the root causes of our economic woes? And how do you think they can be solved??