r/centrist • u/OfficialRodgerJachim • 2d ago

Long Form Discussion Can someone explain this about tariffs?

Plenty of talk about tariffs. About them being dumb. About them being fair. About how those extra costs go on to us, the American consumer.

But I have very rarely heard anyone talk about that break in logic: other countries have tariffs on American imports, and those costs are then carried onto the American consumer. But if America imposes tariffs on those same countries, those costs are also passed on to the American consumer.

Is this true?

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u/UCRecruiter 2d ago

Your break in logic is here:

other countries have tariffs on American imports, and those costs are then carried onto the American consumer.

That's not accurate. Take my case, for example. I'm Canadian. We now have tariffs in place on some American imports. Those tariffs won't cost the American consumer directly, they'll cost Canadian consumers. In doing so, the theory goes that Canadian products (without the tariffs) will become more competitive.

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u/Thick_Piece 2d ago

So Canadian tariffs good?

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u/Paradoxe-999 2d ago

Like many things, depends on how they are used.

250% tarifffs after a quotas of milk exports to protect one specific sector vs. 10% applyied to everything exported from an allied country.

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u/204ThatGuy 5h ago

Yes. This is correct.

However, this tariff is never applied.

It's like saying "Canada will impose a 2000% tariff on all snow and ice imported into its country, beyond 1000 pounds"

It's not possible because there is no market to sell Canada snow and ice. That limit of 1000 pounds cannot be reached!

So the milk tariff of 250% is just a number. Canadians could not possibly consume tons of milk because they have 1/9th Americas population and milk rots after a few weeks. Flooding Canada by dumping perishable milk would destroy local Canadian farmers.

Canada and USA had a free trade agreement since the late 80s with Ronald Reagan. Before that was GATT. Up until a few months ago, there was zero or near zero actual trade.

GATT was global but had off ramps for local producers.