In my Economics 101 course in 1969 I learned “Tariffs Bad”. And the converse: “Free Trade Good”.
And have thought so ever since. As does every “right-thinking” person in Liberal Democrat economies. Until Trump. Who asks a simple question: if tariffs are so bad why do so many countries have them? Why do they do and we don’t?
It’s a good question. The simple answer to which is that the tariffing countries, the likes of China and Japan and so many in Asia and even in Europe, do it to protect jobs in their countries. To protect whole industries. Which is what Trump says he’s trying to do: bring jobs back to the United States. Which by some data he seems to be doing. And for which tariffs are a weapon; a tool.
With Japan it’s much more than tariffs. They have all sorts of non-tariff barriers to protect their inefficient industries like rice growing.
But the below news in today’s South China Morning Post is at least a start.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday said the US and Japan had struck a trade deal that includes a 15 per cent tariff that will be levied on US imports from the country.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the deal would include US$550 billion of Japanese investments in the United States.
He also said that Japan would increase market access to American producers of cars, trucks, rice and certain agricultural products, among other items.
“We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump’s post made no mention of easing tariffs on Japanese automobiles, which account for more than a quarter of all the country’s exports to the US and are subject to a 25 per cent tariff. [Read on…]
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3319210/trump-closes-massive-trade-deal-japan
