Even though I'll be accused of this, I don't want this to be a political discussion. I'm just curious regarding how this is done and why.
My understanding is that before we imposed the income tax, the US government was funded mainly by tariffs. So a tariff isn't anything new.
My question revolves around the notion of reciprocal tariffs. In what reasonable world would we not tariff another country the same amount that they're imposing on us? Is this some sort of backdoor economic development plan for other countries that's being waged on the backs of people and companies that produce goods for export? Isn't this something that has the potential to be rife with backdoor deals, fraud, and kickbacks to people in the various governments? Is that why this has gone on for so long?
To me, in a perfect world, the countries of the world would agree on one general tariff percentage for all imported products. The proceeds would be used to offset government expenses, lowering taxes for all citizens. I heard one estimate that if there was a general tariff of all products from all countries worldwide of 7%, that this would generate an additional $1 trillion annually to the US coffers and not affect our exporters much different than they're paying overall now.
Aside from that, why wouldn't we have imposed reciprocal tariffs 100 years ago? Is there some reason why our average tariff is 2.3%, but China's is almost 10% and Brazil's is over 13%? And if the answer is because it helps emerging economies, then what does that have to do with China and Brazil? The average rates in the EU are higher than ours (2.85%) but at least they're close.
My understanding is that before we imposed the income tax, the US government was funded mainly by tariffs. So a tariff isn't anything new.
My question revolves around the notion of reciprocal tariffs. In what reasonable world would we not tariff another country the same amount that they're imposing on us? Is this some sort of backdoor economic development plan for other countries that's being waged on the backs of people and companies that produce goods for export? Isn't this something that has the potential to be rife with backdoor deals, fraud, and kickbacks to people in the various governments? Is that why this has gone on for so long?
To me, in a perfect world, the countries of the world would agree on one general tariff percentage for all imported products. The proceeds would be used to offset government expenses, lowering taxes for all citizens. I heard one estimate that if there was a general tariff of all products from all countries worldwide of 7%, that this would generate an additional $1 trillion annually to the US coffers and not affect our exporters much different than they're paying overall now.
Aside from that, why wouldn't we have imposed reciprocal tariffs 100 years ago? Is there some reason why our average tariff is 2.3%, but China's is almost 10% and Brazil's is over 13%? And if the answer is because it helps emerging economies, then what does that have to do with China and Brazil? The average rates in the EU are higher than ours (2.85%) but at least they're close.
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