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Tariffs aren't that Simple

"Tariffs are paid by the importer, not the exporter, dummy."

And just like that, the trade war is over, everyone stands down, and resumes filling their online baskets.

LOL, no.

In our rush to own the mercantilists, we may be oversimplifying tariffs so much as to be unconvincing.

"Yeah, but why don't we charge foreign exporters?" is a valid question.

The ability of the state to levy - and enforce those levies - is constrained by its borders.

Practically, I can ignore any invoice from a state with which I have no ties.

A sovereign state government can likewise ignore tariffs levied against them. If something is made contingent upon paying those tariffs, e.g. aid, then that's essentially trade. 

Already, tariffs can be linked to the fundamentals of nation-states and behavioural psychology.

Why tariffs are structured the way they are could teach us a lot about how the modern world came to be ...

... if we didn't simply dismiss them and their proponents.

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Location: Port of Long Beach, Long Beach, CA 90802, USA

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