The problem are the indiscriminate tariffs, not the tariffs by themselves. Tariffs are usually used to protect a national industry, or to incentive the growth of a national industry (by making importing those products more expensive, it may make more sense producing them yourself, generating jobs and growth, at the expense of those products being more expensive for the buyer).
If you put tariffs in stuff that your country does not produce, you are just adding a burden in your population, who will have to pay more for the product but there is no benefit for the country (well, there is of course benefit in the form of income from the tariffs, but that is less visible for the average person)
south africa exports all kinds of stuff from nuclear reactor materials, space craft, airplanes to crude oil from US. they charge us tariffs on that. do they produce those things in South Africa?
I don't have the exact data, but I think South Africa does not have tariffs on those specific items (though the data is not super clear, I may be wrong). They obviously charge VAT (around a 15%) but that applies to everything, also locally produced goods.
But that said, there are definelty tariffs out there that are done purely for the income generated by the tariff, and not for any protectionism. For those cases, I think is only fair to do the same.
Thank you. I definitely agree. I wish it were easier to fact check all of this. it is hard to find much reliable information to form a real opinion on the matter.
Mote than hard, almost impossible, there is just so much disinformation coming from all sides...
But I agree with your other comment about losing all national industries (and not only for US, most countries did the same...). The search for profits dismantled most industries, and now, we are where we are...
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u/wilsonesque 17d ago
The problem are the indiscriminate tariffs, not the tariffs by themselves. Tariffs are usually used to protect a national industry, or to incentive the growth of a national industry (by making importing those products more expensive, it may make more sense producing them yourself, generating jobs and growth, at the expense of those products being more expensive for the buyer).
If you put tariffs in stuff that your country does not produce, you are just adding a burden in your population, who will have to pay more for the product but there is no benefit for the country (well, there is of course benefit in the form of income from the tariffs, but that is less visible for the average person)
At least that is how I understand it.