As long as it’s an even playing field we don’t need tariffs. It is not an even playing field
Exactly
It never has been. Free Trade is an oxymoron.
“As long as it’s an even playing field we don’t need tariffs. It is not an even playing field.”
Agreed. You wouldn’t go into a fight as a boxer and be OK with it when you find out the other guy laced up with plaster of Paris in his hand wraps and thus in his gloves. Competition is only fair when people, or nations, don’t cheat.
“As long as it’s an even playing field we don’t need tariffs. It is not an even playing field”
Ask the free traders why these “free trade” agreements are thousands of pages in length and supplemented with thousands of more pages of rules and regulations. In addition they require large bureaucracies to administer as well as administrative panels to penalize or reward companies. These agreements have nothing to do with “free trade”. They are managed trade agreements spelling out special favors for specific countries, companies, markets and industries.
One more thought for the free traders. In 1865, the United States economy was in ruin from 4 years of Civil War. European powers dominated the world economy. From 1865 to 1900 the United States had the highest tariffs in its history. During that 35 year period the US transitioned from economic ruin to the greater industrial power on the planet.
Over the last 30 years China has grown from a third world economy to the world’s second largest economy. During this period it has pursued mercantilist trade policy protecting its domestic market from foreign competition while exploiting the open market free trade policy of the United States.
During the 18th and 19th century Great Britain had the leading industrial economy. It also pursued a mercantilist trade policy protecting its domestic economy while using its military and navy to maintain an empire within which it carefully controlled trade.
Academics, politicians, and globalists continuously talk about the benefits of free trade. Where is the example in the modern era of an economy that grew from economic deprivation to a globally dominant force in three decades by eliminating all trade barriers and inviting other nations to compete with its domestic industries while restricting access to their home markets? There is none.
Actually, and this is an argument that drives the left and RINO right crazy, since there are unpaid externalities (pollution, national security risk and costs, etc.) to shipping from abroad what could be produced locally, some sort of tariff/tax on that extended shipping should be imposed on such imports.