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Comment by HideousKojima | Hacker News Reader

How are tariffs (and now basically significant tariffs on only China now) in any way similar to a centrally planned economy? Tariffs have existed in every country capable of enforcing them for all of human history, and they existed in the US prior to Trump, and will continue to exist after Trump. Even countries we have supposed "free trade" agreements with still get tariffed (and impose tariffs on our goods).

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They're taxing certain things and then carving out exemptions for other things. Personal favors and political ideology driving the economy instead of market forces.

That's how "free trade" agreements have worked for decades too. Look at the specific categories Canada puts protective tariffs on despite our trade agreements with them (in particular their agricultural goods which have quotas after which massive tariffs are applied). Governments worldwide have been subsidizing and otherwise favoring specific companies and industries for as long as civilization has existed. I don't like it when Trump does it too, but I don't understand the people acting like this is somehow a new and unprecedented thing.

>I don't like it when Trump does it too, but I don't understand the people acting like this is somehow a new and unprecedented thing.

Sans near-total embargoes on goods from a country, have we ever imposed sweeping tariffs of 145% on all goods coming from one of our most-imported trade partners?

No, no we have not. Certain tariffs were very targeted for specific reasons, you are correct. But those were not blanket-applied haphazardly at such high levels. Hence, "unprecedented".

We've had an infinity% tariff on all goods from Cuba for decades

Those are broader economic embargoes, not tariffs. A lot more is involved in that situation and it's much more nuanced than what's happening with tariffs today. Hence my comment, "sans near-total embargoes on a country". Tariffs are taxes on goods allowed to enter the country - embargoes are a total elimination of trade (meaning we can't receive and we can't ship to) with a country.

This is another apples/oranges comparison.

Many counties manage agriculture by having quotas for farm products and some price regulation. If you don't do that in good years the crop price plummets, farmers go broke and then in poor years there are shortages because of that.

Canada or the EU doing that and sorting their own food isn't the huge conspiracy against America that Trump seems to think it is.

Remember when Trump threatened Amazon for even thinking about showing the tariffs on the payment screen?

Very free market.

He called it a "hostile and political act", when did he threaten them?

> when did he threaten them?

When he called it "a hostile and political act".

Remember when just officially telling people that they are not horses turned out to be a free speech violation?

Others have responded more eloquently than I to this, so I won't. All I will say is I never equated tariffs with central planning, but I can see how from context you drew that conclusion. Tariffs aren't the only thing the republicans are doing under Trump, and taken as a whole the current administration smells – to me at least – a lot more politburo than the free trade champions of yesteryear. (Well, more like decade at this point.)

>Tariffs have existed in every country capable of enforcing them for all of human history, and they existed in the US prior to Trump, and will continue to exist after Trump. Even countries we have supposed "free trade" agreements with still get tariffed (and impose tariffs on our goods).

To what degree relative to what we're seeing now, though?

Much, much more than what we're seeing now, historically. Including outright banning all or nearly all foreign trade. See Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate for one of the more extreme examples.

Apples, meet oranges. Japan outright banning trade with all other countries is different than implementing tariffs.

"How dare you judge me for drinking a case of beer. I know for a fact you had two beers this evening!"

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