Question

what is the rational for a country that promotes free trade to put tariffs on some imported goods and services?

Answer 1

A tariff is a tax imposed by a governing authority on goods or services entering or leaving the country and is typically focused on a specified industry or product. It is meant to alter the balance of trade between the tariff-imposing country and its international trading partners. For example, when a government imposes an import tariff, it adds to the cost of importing the specified goods or services. The additional marginal cost added by the tariff discourages imports, thus affecting the balance of trade.

There are various reasons a government may choose to impose a tariff. The most common examples of rationale used to justify tariffs are protection for nascent industries, national defense purposes, supporting domestic employment, combating aggressive trade policies and environmental reasons.

Tariffs are commonly used to protect an early-stage domestic industry from international competition. The tariff acts as an incubator that, in theory, should allow the domestic industry ample time to develop and grow into a competitive position on an international landscape.

International competitors may employ aggressive trade tactics such as flooding the market in an attempt to gain market share and put domestic producers out of business. Governments may use tariffs to mitigate the effects of foreign entities employing what may be considered unfair tactics.

Economists generally agree that trade barriers are detrimental and decrease overall economic efficiency. This can be explained by the theory of comparative advantage. In theory, free trade involves the removal of all such barriers, except perhaps those considered necessary for health or national security. In practice, however, even those countries promoting free trade heavily subsidize certain industries, such as agriculture and steel. Trade barriers are often criticized for the effect they have on the developing world. Because rich-country players set trade policies, goods, such as agricultural products that developing countries are best at producing, face high barriers. Trade barriers, such as taxes on food imports or subsidies for farmers in developed economies, lead to overproduction and dumping on world markets, thus lowering prices and hurting poor-country farmers. Tariffs also tend to be anti-poor, with low rates for raw commodities and high rates for labor-intensive processed goods. The Commitment to Development Index measures the effect that rich country trade policies actually have on the developing world. Another negative aspect of trade barriers is that it would cause a limited choice of products and, therefore, would force customers to pay higher prices and accept inferior quality.

In general, for a given level of protection, quota-like restrictions carry a greater potential for reducing welfare than do tariffs. Tariffs, quotas, and non-tariff barriers lead too few of the economy’s resources being used to produce tradeable goods. An export subsidy can also be used to give an advantage to a domestic producer over a foreign producer. Export subsidies tend to have a particularly strong negative effect because in addition to distorting resource allocation, they reduce the economy’s terms of trade. In contrast to tariffs, export subsidies lead to an over allocation of the economy’s resources to the production of tradeable good