Those imports are taking away good jobs. We have to impose tariffs to stop the invasion of foreign goods to our shores. These comments all sound good, but the reality is more complex. It is usually always that way. One chart that caught my attention showed that many good imports are intermediate goods rather than final products. We take in components and assemble the final product. As an intermediary good, a tariff will increase the price of the final good. The answer could be to produce these intermediate goods in the US, but they are often specialized and may be hard to produce at low cost. Some industries are very dependent on these imports, and they do not fit the usual trade story being used to justify tariffs. Think about complexities and realize most problems are not easy yes or no answers.
No comments:
Post a Comment