“Trump’s trade war will no longer cripple China. Experts explain why,” the headline proclaims, summing up well an opinion we read in dozens of other articles.
And why should they cripple anyone! After all, import tariffs are not meant to destroy anyone. Their logic is as follows:
Where Chinese companies can produce at half the price of American companies, they will continue to push into the American market.
Where Chinese companies can produce for even a third cheaper, American companies will prevail over them.
It will be more expensive for consumers (which can be very dramatic, especially for poor people, and will have to be compensated for), but it will also create better-paid jobs.
In the short term, this will create some problems that will need to be addressed. In the medium and long term, it will enable the development of American industry and the revitalization of the American education system and society in general.
The logic of tariffs refers to a world where America produces for America, the Czechs produce for themselves and surrounding countries, and the Third World produces for the Third World. Only some special items will be produced globally. It is a world where national governments will have more power than corporations and where the ability to produce something will be valued more than the ability to close a factory and move production to somewhere in Asia. It is a world where life will be much better.
That is, if we Czechs approach it rationally, and if we don’t see it as a war or a series of mutual bickering. It is fascinating that professional economic commentators are unable to grasp such quite simple things.