Currency manipulation, border taxes, and ever-changing foreign subsidies have a huge impact on trade flows.  Editorial boards and under-educated DC types still focus on tariffs, quivering in fear lest we re-enact some Smoot Hawley tariff that no one is proposing.

But look at energy:

The study, published in May by the Canadian investment bank CIBC World Markets, calculates that the recent surge in shipping costs is on average the equivalent of a 9 percent tariff on trade. “The cost of moving goods, not the cost of tariffs, is the largest barrier to global trade today,” the report concluded, and as a result “has effectively offset all the trade liberalization efforts of the last three decades.”

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Write comment

Name

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.

Add Comment