Oh dear, how sad - cars might get cheaper in Britain

Possibly just a little oddity of how the world works out but it’s possible that cars in Britain are about to get significantly cheaper:

Britain has so far managed to avoid Donald Trump’s blitz of threatened tariffs. But even if the US president steers clear of direct charges on imports from the UK, the impact of his trade war will be felt on our shores.

Trade wars are Bad, M’Kay? And yet silver linings and all that:

Foreign exporters – chiefly China – will race to offload stock they can no longer sell competitively in the US, possibly undercutting British producers.

All eyes will be on the car industry. China will be looking for buyers for its electric vehicles (EVs). Meanwhile, Germany’s mighty auto industry must also find new buyers for its vehicles if Trump hits the EU with tariffs.

The German cars they can’t sell in the US, the Chinese - and they’ll be low cost EVs to boot - they can’t sell in the EU or US. They’ll all pile up here in Dear Old Blighty. Apparently.

This will clearly be of benefit to the British consumer. So, given that we are supposed to be running the economy of the country for the benefit of the population of the country then let ‘em in. Obviously.

That is, if everyone else is going to beggar themselves snarling about and over tariffs we ourselves should be utilising the only logical and rational plan there is - unilateral free trade.

For - and yes, this is to repeat ourselves - the entire and whole point of trade is for us to get our hands on what we would like to have from the cornucopia that Johnny Foreigner is willing to make and offer. That’s what it’s all about and it’s not about anything else either. Sure, we’ve also got to export stuff so we can afford all those lovelies but that is the correct ordering. If J Foreigner doesn’t make anything we want then there’s no point in trade. If Mr. Foreigner, J, does make things we want then we should have access to those things - for no other reason nor justification than we want them.

So, unilateral free trade it is then and we make out like bandits as all those lovelies we want get dumped upon us at fire sale prices. Excellent. To argue against this is to use the logic that no one should buy anything in the January Sales - that way madness lies.

Well, in theory the other argument against would be those who don’t want the proles to have all those cars that will clog up the Zil-lanes but then Britain doesn’t contain anyone like that now, does it?

Tim Worstall