As you said about Mexico…. Why can’t we just buy from somewhere else? Or is that only for other countries to do?
Because you’re vastly oversimplifying the problem. We are the largest consumer. Look at the example I gave. Mexico buys a huge amount of corn from our farmers. It’s quick and easy to ship it to them. Put a huge tariff on it and it’s very easy for them to go buy it from Argentina or Brazil. It’s a commodity that doesn’t spoil. Corn from them is not different than from the US and it’s easy to ship. It just costs a little more, but cheaper than the tariff from the US.
Now, that same farmer buys a John deer tractor that’s made in Mexico. He can’t immediately go buy the same tractor from Australia or Germany or Russia. That company has a huge investment in that factory that was built based on our trade agreements, just like the one Trump signed in his first term and bragged about.
Also, your example would work if Mexico was putting tariffs on Brazil and Argentina too, but they aren’t. Trump is putting tariffs on all of our major import countries.
Another example I posted was gas coming in from Canada. Both countries have spent billions on that infrastructure. So, we are just going to abandon that to ship gas in from somewhere else at a larger expense? No. And if we did, it’s still inflationary.
America is the largest consumer. Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t produce everything we consume. And, our labor wouldn’t do it at the cost we can buy it from other countries at. So, that’s inflationary. And, we don’t even have the labor force here now to make what we want to make here.
That’s not even taking into consideration perishable food we get from Mexico by the millions of tons. We can’t grow it here. It would spoil by the time it gets here from other countries.
But, I seriously am anxious to try this to see if I’m proven wrong. If I am? Game on.
