Free Trade Expert Takes Down the Best Arguments for Tariffs

Can you avoid the cost of tariffs by buying only American-made products? Will tariffs promote domestic manufacturing while filling federal tax coffers? Is free trade killing jobs?

No, no, and certainly not, explains Daniel Hannan, a conservative member of the House of Lords in the United Kingdom and president of the Institute for Free Trade.

"Tariffs will push up the cost not only of the imported stuff obviously with the tariff but also that the domestic industries will raise their prices as well because they no longer have the competition," Hannan tells Reason. "And what does that mean? It means that every American has less disposable income. They've all got to spend more money to live at the same level that they were living at before without any gain."

In an exclusive sit-down with Reason, Hannan debunks some of the most common arguments for tariffs and explains why free trade remains underappreciated—despite a remarkable track record of lifting billions out of poverty and making it possible for human beings to work and live in better conditions than ever.

And that's true even if other countries are imposing tariffs on American goods.

"Just because somebody else is shooting himself in the foot, the worst possible response is to take aim and blow off a couple of your own toes in order to show them," he says.

President Donald Trump has imposed 10 percent tariffs on nearly all imports into the United States (and far higher tariffs on goods from China). Trump says he wants to stop other countries from taking advantage of America, but his trade war is rattling stock markets and threatens to reduce Americans' standard of living.

Hannan says protectionism never works, but that's a lesson that politicians and voters seemingly have to learn and relearn periodically.

"Free trade is always unpopular, but it always works. What, in the end, convinces people is not theory, but practice," says Hannan. "After the [Smoot-Hawley] tariffs, people understood that protectionism made everybody poorer, especially the people it was most designed to protect, the people on lower incomes. I have a horrible feeling that we're about to go through that learning process again."

Music credits: "Goals" by Rex Banner via Artlist; "Daydream" by Audiopanther via Artlist; "Dark Sparks" by Raz Burg via Artlist; "Bubbles Drop" by Cosmonkey via Artlist; "A Girl Can Dream" by Emily Lewis via Artlist; "Big Fat Tummy" by Ge Gilter Fish via Artlist; "Sensation Station" by Novembers via Artlist; "Hey Honey" by The Talbot Brothers via Artlist; "Come Around" by Danya via Artlist; "Valley of Lights" by Romeo via Artlist

• Video Editor: Danielle Thompson
• Producer: Daniel Hannan