The senselessness of trade wars is well expressed in an adage attributed to the British economist Joan Robinson:
Even if your trading partner dumps rocks into his harbour to obstruct arriving cargo ships, you do not make yourself better off by dumping rocks into your own harbour.
Alas in a trade war as soon as one country dumps rocks in its harbours everybody starts dumping rock in theirs, and everybody losses. So no matter what some twitting presidents seem to think, trade wars are not easy and nobody wins them. They really are a lose/lose proposition.
No comments:
Post a Comment