Nobody wins in trade wars.
Nobody wins in trade wars.
What if we imposed tariffs on Chinese products that contain high amounts of lead? Does nobody win then? Suppose further that such a tariff hinders the expansion of companies who put high amounts of lead in their products, allowing a company who does not use lead to gain a supply chain and infrastructure advantage in these "expanded areas". Is nobody winning then?
It's a poor example because that's not how products containing dangerous levels of a substance are dealt with. None of this recent trade war back & forth has imposed tariffs on any products for any reason resembling this. Even if they did, the answer is still "no", we don't win by simply making dangerous or deadly items more expensive. We ban them. When toys from China were found to have lead paint a few years ago, which violates US law, we didn't put tariffs on those toys, we put out public alerts and recall notices.
If we do start putting tariffs on, say, vaping products from China because we believe they are dangerous, then maybe there would be a good comparison. However, even then, we could simply tax them locally instead of instituting an international tariff that would provoke trade tensions, so we still wouldn't "win" compared to available alternatives.
Maybe there have been examples of winning a trade war via tariffs, but I'm not aware of them, and history is littered with losses. [0]
[0]https://www.ft.com/content/ed1a5480-38c9-11e8-8b98-2f31af407...
Well, it would actually be interesting, given that various RoHS-style approaches seem to rely entirely on bans and labelling requirements. Fees would be an interesting middle ground for things that can't be banned for product quality† reasons, but for which labelling is not a sufficient deterrent for low-value uses of hazardous substances.
added:
† Lead is a very useful material. In many cases, using lead instead of alternatives in a product can dramatically improve consumer safety. For example, lead solder is more ductile than lead-free solder; in a product that vibrates, lead solder can dramatically improve the useful life of a product, as far as I've been told. Furthermore, the higher temperatures required to make joints with lead-free solder increase the failure rate of components being soldered.
but I'm not sure it's directly related to trade wars.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot–Hawley_Tariff_Act#After_...
If one country conducts their trade in an unfair manner and won't stop until another country retaliates, after which they both trade fairly, this would be just one an example of an effective trade war.
Whether any of this is happening today is very complex and seems to come down to a matter of opinion, especially since almost no one has sat down and really looked at the numbers and issues in depth.
I would suggest that we allow open trade with those countries that meet or exceed our own work, safety and environmental protection requirements. In this case, China, India, most of Africa and some of South America does not meet such levels. In which case, trade should appropriately be restricted unless and until such changes are implemented. This doesn't force our values on other countries, but would at the very least encourage better work and environmental conditions.
In the process of deferring our own production overseas, we've lost our own ability to produce a lot of goods. Some of which requires material resources that are excessively scarce domestically while not fostering relationships with other countries that do have more of those natural resources. This has allowed China and others to foster those relationships, and the conditions relaxed to the point of the acquiring of those resources creating, IMHO, more damages than the good those resources bring.
I do feel that environmental pollution is a real and serious problem, though I'm less inclined to support the paranoid delusions of some, and the outright disinformation of those that are pushing a political agenda over any real, meaningful environmental impact. There are real and meaningful changes that should happen, and negotiation with foreign governments and peoples are a part of that.
As to balancing the winners and losers, I am not sure that should be a goal of trade, and even then that's a large part of what tariff and excise taxes are/were for. It will always balance out in the end and technology is ever increasingly the great equalizer.
That is an extremely optimistic perspective.
The West has a large diaspora from former Soviet countries. You should try talking to some of them sometime.
Exactly why is this minority more powerful than "most people"? That doesn't even make any sense. Most people aren't powerless, they just refuse to stand up and take action, so they're allowing the minority to oppress them.
"I don't see why we have to let a country go Communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people." ~ Henry Kissinger on Chile in the 70s.
It's not entirely accurate to say "nobody" wins. Politicians can definitely "win" in trade wars.
If so does devaluating your own currency or propping up industries via government backed loans count?
I’d argue that these initiatives affect trade and force other governments to enact their own measures. And of course, there are winners and losers.
I would consider upholding higher-order principles to be a win.