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From the Economist: Playing Chicken
Excerpt:
Chart linked here.
Once again, Donald Dork opens his fat mouth and puts his foot into it.
Who in the US would be affected most? Also excerpted from the article:
Trade is a two-way street, always has been and always will be. If a country indulges in "beggar-thy-neighbor" tactics, it will find itself also the victim ...
Excerpt:
MEXICO sells America more goods than America sells Mexico, and it enrages President Donald Trump. In 2015 the difference was $58 billion (0.3% of GDP). That is enough, thinks Mr Trump, to justify rewriting the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which allows goods to flow across the Rio Grande free of tariffs. Yet the trade deficit masks bigger figures: America sends almost $240bn in goods to Mexico every year. Were NAFTA to disappear in a renegotiation-gone-wrong, many Americans would pay a price—and not just as consumers faced with dearer avocados. Which American producers would suffer?
Suppose, optimistically, that each side followed World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. Then, tariffs would revert to so-called “most favoured nation” rates. (That might sound vaguely friendly, but it simply means neither side can offer a different deal from what it gives to any other WTO member.) By matching these tariffs to trade flows for about 5,000 goods, The Economist has estimated which states’ exporters would be worst-affected by the levies.
Little wonder that the farm lobby tends vocally to support free trade. Yet farm states are lucky to have plenty of customers elsewhere. Idaho’s exports to Mexico are worth less than half a percent of its GDP. Other state economies are more tangled up with Mexico’s. These places should worry about NAFTA’s fate despite facing low average tariffs (see chart).
Chart linked here.
Once again, Donald Dork opens his fat mouth and puts his foot into it.
Who in the US would be affected most? Also excerpted from the article:
Among this group, Texas stands out. It faces an average tariff of only 3%, but its exports to Mexico are worth nearly 6% of its GDP (compared with 1.3% nationally). As in Iowa, farmers would suffer. Texan cuts of Gallus domesticus—otherwise known as chicken—would incur the largest tariff bill, $174m, of any single product category in the country. In total, as a percentage of GDP, Texas would pay more than any other state. Michigan also fits this category. Its exports of cars and parts—many of which end up back in America—would attract tariffs averaging only about 5%. But with such shipments totalling $4.1bn, the bill would be painfully large.
Trade is a two-way street, always has been and always will be. If a country indulges in "beggar-thy-neighbor" tactics, it will find itself also the victim ...