How's the farming community doing in Hong Kong, Macao, and Singapore?
Of course the protected industries benefit from protectionism, the argument against protectionism is that everyone else loses.
There is no reason that a transaction with a counterparty in Shanghai should incur any more taxes than an equivalent transaction with a counterparty in Manchester.
Net benefit to who? Global capital efficiency, people?
Jobs going overeseas to countries with lower wages and less safty/environmental/etc. regulation has been a net loss for humanity... but it has been a major win for capitol!
Also the wages thing, but I understand that is a more nuanced issue, so let’s set it aside for a moment.
Not sure if it's a net benefit. And neither are you. But there are certainly winners and losers.
Protectionism for European agriculture has made Europe a positively lovely place to live. Have you seen it? I recommend the south of France.
> Of course the protected industries benefit from protectionism, the argument against protectionism is that everyone else loses.
I have a degree in economics, the concept hasn't escaped me.
Noticing that having protections evaporate overnight could have massive negative consequences for many is pretty relevant.
> There is no reason that a transaction with a counterparty in Shanghai should incur any more taxes than an equivalent transaction with a counterparty in Manchester.
If it just happens to turn Manchester into an economic wasteland where the daughters of England are sold into prostitution and working men beg for scraps of food in the street, then those are two reasons.
I get the argument you're making. It's a style of economic conversation where you assume frictionless perfect markets and rational allocations of resources. Those of us that actually understand how economic systems work moved on from that sort of simplistic line of thinking generations ago.
Depends on what you define as net benefit... Self-sufficiency, especially regarding basic supplies like food, is hugely important for any independent nation. Personally, tariffs on/protectionism of food industry are what I support the most.
Broader picture, net benefit doesn't mean just economic benefit. I support Trump's tariffs on China and hope EU would do the same, tax the hell out of all polluting and tax-evading countries - that would definitely be a net benefit for the planet.
Simply sanctioning bad countries isn't good in itself, unless it forces them to become better.
"Sure it will personally suck for you the British farmer, but think about the benefit to the avocado farmers in Chile. Brexit for Chile!"
Stopping 5% of people from stealing other people's money is a good thing, but might easily be confused with the first thing.
And it illustrates a basic concept, which is that redistributing money isn't value-neutral. Some distributions are better for society than others.
You can't just say free trade takes money from this group and gives it to that group and perhaps ekes out a modest efficiency gain and conclude your analysis there.
It matters who wins and who loses, and by how much.
https://metro.co.uk/2018/09/25/brexit-mps-tweet-about-foreig...
It is complete FUD
Protectionism is the wrong word when you are talking about food supplies. Tariffs are applied selectively to food imports in most countries, to protect farming for food security. Food matters more to people than watered down Randian ideology, once there is a shortage.
A more useful example would be New Zealand:
> “You had a system dictated by government programs that was thrown out the window overnight,” Hausman adds in a recent interview with The Daily Signal. “But the farmers kind of reinvented themselves and now New Zealand is a powerhouse when it comes to agricultural production on the world stage.” https://www.dailysignal.com/2016/09/22/what-happened-when-ne...
But HONG kong is of different scale and no major industry. Part of UK will be ok but other part like car,airbus... may be not. Not sure about clearance but you can be a Euro centre not in Eu as Rmb is very active here. Hence it is a shift not impossible.
May be a total zero tariff is an option. may say the other side is not. But then a lot of tourist will come to shop.
It is the change that is hard.