Zero Tariffs? Easy? Impossible?

While Donald Trump wants tariffs, barriers, and subsidies to go to zero, that may not be completely possible. Ideology has a way of leading us to believe anything is possible, but the people who implement ideas often encounter obstacles which aren't easy to get around.

For example, in America our food products are not developed and sent to market in the same straight-forward manner as with other corporate products. After the Great Depression there was a new system of pricing food stuff and some products have received government subsidies to ensure price stability, rather than large profits or losses for food producers. This ensured more food producers can stay in business during difficult years and yet fewer could gouge customers and make huge profits during their best years.

Would America end that system or price-stabilizing subsidies? I doubt it. The dangers are too great. That doesn't mean a system of self-adjusting tariffs would fall apart. It just means other nations would tariff our food stuff or something of equivalent value to balance our subsidies. There would probably have to be some international organization, such as the WTO, to judge the dollar values of various things like our food subsidies or non-tariff obstacles and thereby ensure fairness.

So, can fair trade through balancing tariffs go to zero? In many cases it doesn't seem likely.

Does that mean fair trade is impossible? No, it just means tariffs and the mechanism to balance them would remain and work as shock absorbers to balance the governmental costs of nations against one another. To have a better idea of how workable this could be will require some analysis and discussion.