Politics: retaliatory tariffs

Self-tutoring about political situations: the tutor mentions the idea of retaliatory tariffs.

With US tariffs against Canada looming, or already in place (it seems hard to keep track, with how the instigator seems to change their mind), there has been talk of what Canada should do. Retaliatory tariffs are among the ideas. Officially, it seems these are described as countermeasures.

It seems natural enough to respond to tariffs with tariffs of one’s own. However, Agathe Demarais, in her article here, sees it differently.

As I understand, Demarais’s central idea is that consumers will continue to buy the same goods anyway, even if they have to pay more because of a tariff. For instance, US consumers would continue buying European products even if a tariff were imposed on them. Said products would simply be more expensive for American consumers. Therefore, the tariff is a tax that Americans pay to their own government.

Demarais seems to believe that when a consumer wants something, they would be worse off without it or paying more for it. Therefore, if Europe were to put up retaliatory tariffs against the US, that would simply hurt Europeans, who would have to pay more for the American products they want. That would be Europe punishing its own citizens.

Interesting, eh?

Source:

canada.ca

cfib-fcei.ca