Commentary

• Tariffs are a tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports.
• Tariffs on international trade is a form of protectionism.
• Protectionism refers to intervention in the form of government policies that restrict and regulate international trade in order to help domestic industries.
• One of the reasons it is implemented is with the aim of improving economic activity within a domestic setting - specifically to support local economies.

Tariffs on international trade are important to support local economies because:

• It protects certain industries, safeguarding and creating more jobs. One example of this is Trump imposing a tariff on steel imports to protect jobs in the US steel industry.
• Protects against international competition
• Money stays within the local economy as consumers are encouraged to buy local produce as opposed to its more expensive imported alternative.

Adverse effects

• Lack of competition often leads to industries being able to hike up their prices - this may benefit the company economically but have the opposite effect on the local community who may struggle to afford their products and services.
• Higher prices may lead to lower overall demand, thus causing job losses and increased unemployment, then even fewer customers who can afford the prices, leading to a spiral of economic downfall.
• Other nations may retaliate with trade bans or tariffs of their own, and revenue gained from exporting from the local community may decrease.

Who pays for tariffs?
YOU DO!

• Trump tariffs on steel in 2018 caused an 8% rise this equates $5.6 billion increase.
• before Trump, the 2002 steel tariffs cost 200000 US jobs as people just couldn't afford the monopolistic pricing.
• trumps not the only one at fault Obamas tyre tariffs saved 1200 jobs at the cost of $90000 per job. The knock-on effect cost 4000 jobs in various other industries.
• The washing machine tariffs raised the price by $86 on average due to lack of competition it protected some jobs about 1800 at the cost of $1,5 dollars a year.
• Douglas Irving found that productivity decreases in industries with tariffs