Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

It's clearly not protectionism, because you wouldn't put tariffs on everything - including all the raw materials and parts you need to import, if you wanted your local industries to succeed. And you'd have a coherent industrial policy to go along with it.



Protectionism is France and England putting tariffs on each others cheese. America putting tariffs on Canadian lumber.

Putting tariffs on places that have a 20x factor difference in wages is something else.

And protectionism isn't necessarily a dirty word. It's often valuable to save your local industries from being wiped out and to not have a foreign country have complete control of a necessity.


My point is only that these tariffs cannot be motivated by protectionism, since they are not targeted and will also disadvantage local industry.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: