International trade

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1758394757

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-136209

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Taussig, Frank William http://d-nb.info/gnd/120199459

Title:: International trade

Place of publication:: New York, NY

Publisher:: Macmillan

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: XXI, 425 Seiten; graph. Darst.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part I. Theory

Collection:: Economics Books

IMPORT DUTIES AND TERMS OF TRADE 147 They continue to come in free; and as regards them, the better terms of trade become more advantageous in consequence of the exclusion of the protected goods. And even as regards the latter, the same result may endure in part; that is, so far as the goods continue to be imported. The duty may be so nicely adjusted to the difference in money cost between domestic and foreign pro- ducers that domestic production is stimulated, while some imports nevertheless continue. A result of this kind is aimed at by per- sons who contend for a “competitive tariff” — one which shall leave a precise balance between domestic producers and their foreign competitors. A division between imported and domestic supplies also takes place, as has been elsewhere indicated, where the domestic industry is carried on under the conditions of dimin- ishing returns.! All in all, a rigorous and effective system of protection may yet permit a large volume of goods to come in from foreign countries. Those goods which continue to be imported are then obtained on the better terms of trade. There does exist this gain, to be reckoned as offsetting the direct loss caused by the protective duties. A different ground for questioning whether in the end the attain- ment of any gain whatever will persist is that every country can play the same game. If the United States can get better barter terms of trade by imposing duties on goods coming from foreign countries, those other foreign countries can do the same by duties on goods coming from the United States. The application of the process on both sides not only increases the loss arising from the protective duties in themselves, but lessens the total gain from the division of labor that continues between the two sets of countries. True, some among them may perhaps retain a larger share of the remaining gain than others. But this preferential position, depending as it must on the elusive conditions of reciprocal demand, is neither easy to make sure nor easy to keep if once attained. Considering the trading world as a whole, and having in mind all the possibilities of retaliation, the quest of this sort of gain must be admitted to be highly hazardous. And if one finds the ordinary 1See Chapter 8, p. 87.

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