Lucky we’re not ruled by these people then, isn’t it?

Credit where it’s due, Keir Starmer just insisted that with all these threats of tariffs the right thing to do is nothing very much, mumble a bit and still do nothing. Quite right too. On the other hand, the European Parliament:

Bernd Lange, head of the European parliament trade committee, said until “the threats [on Greenland] are over there will be no possibility for compromise” on ratifying the US deal, which promised Americans a new era of 0% tariffs on many industrial exports.

Or perhaps that’s The Guardian getting it wrong but we don’t think so.

As we’ve pointed out just recently it’s essential that we all grasp what tariffs actually are. They’re a tax upon consumers in the country that imposes tariffs upon imports. They are not a tax upon exports, they are not a tax upon foreigners.

These 0% tariffs. If that is the system that is to be then the result will be that Europeans do not have to pay tax for the temerity of buying an American industrial product. That also means that the tax, if it is left as it is, is a tax upon European consumers.

No, it is not just a tax upon European consumers of American industrial products either. For in the absence of those American products all European producers are able to charge higher prices. Thus all European consumers pay more - and the more they pay is almost certainly more than the amount raised in tax from the tariffs.

Tariffs make us, us consumers, poorer. That’s what they’re meant to do, that’s what they do do. So, the correct response to anyone imposing tariffs upon imports into our, or your, country is “Why are you making me poorer?”

When properly phrased in that manner the foolishness becomes apparent. “Yes, OK, The Donald, Greenland, terrible, v naughty, but why does that justify passing a law to make me poorer?” Or even, “Why are you, Mr. Politician, ignorant of the subject under discussion?”

Tim Worstall