Immediately after his inauguration, President Trump said he would impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico on February 1. He has repeated that he loves the word tariffs. "To me, the most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariff. And it’s my favorite word. It needs a public relations firm to help it."
Does the Bible say anything about tariffs? Not explicitly. But it has references from which we can extrapolate principles. Jacob imported wheat from Egypt during the famine in Genesis 42. Solomon imported cedar and cypress lumber and gold from Tyre for building the temple in Jerusalem in I Kings 5. He bought horses from Egypt in I Kings 22. And in I Kings 9, the wisest king ever built ships to conduct international trade, imports and exports.
In Ecclesiastes 11:1, Solomon advises the people of God, "Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days," in the King James version. Traditionally, that verse is interpreted as an encouragement to give charity. But the New International Version translates it as "Ship your grain across the sea; after many days you may receive a return," seeing it as financial advice to invest in the import and export shipping business.
I lean toward the investment advice interpretation because of verse 2, "Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth," according to King James. The NIV says, "Invest in seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disaster may come upon the land." That is clearly good advice to diversify one's investments.
Notice that none of these passages suggest any harm coming to Israel because of imports. The Bible sees them as blessings, not curses. Imports are nothing more than one group of people buying from sellers in another country and paying for them with exports, either money or goods. The Bible pictures honest buying and selling as virtuous (Proverbs 31), even when suppliers are in other countries. It prohibits only stealing, fraud and buying slaves.
Blocking consumers from buying foreign goods falls under the prohibition of stealing, because property requires control. If the government takes away the control of one's property by restricting to whom he can sell and from whom he can buy, it steals a part of his property.
Tariffs violate the many Biblical commands to help the poor and not hurt them. In the last two decades of the 20th century, Walmart had a Buy American campaign that it abandoned in the 21st century for a variety of reasons. Then it began importing consumer goods from China. Several economists wrote that Walmart might be a candidate for the Nobel Prize.
According to Foreign Affairs, "Walmart may have done more for poor consumers in the United States, and around the world, than any other business in American history.... more efficient production and transportation are reducing the prices of many of the basic goods purchased by the world’s poorest people. If that’s rapacious, Walmart-style capitalism, let’s have more!"
Walmart helped poor foreign workers by selling their products in the U.S. and poor consumers in the U.S. by providing much cheaper clothes, toys and other consumer goods. We can help the poor by giving them money. But it also helps them to make their money go farther by reducing the prices of the things they need to buy. Check out the hockey stick graph of per capita GDP growth. Almost all of that growth came from reducing the costs of food, clothing, housing and transportation that made poor people richer.
Walmart did more for poor people that all of the charity given and more than government handouts. But don't hold your breath. Walmart will never receive a Nobel Prize because the committee only supports socialists.
Another principle that tariffs violate is the Biblical role of government. Romans 13:4 gives the government only one job, to punish criminals: "...for it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil." The government has God's permission to collect taxes for its Biblical purpose. But if it collects taxes above the amount necessary for that job, it commits theft. Of course, the U.S. government began committing theft decades ago.
Finally, tariffs breed corruption because they benefit only a few producers, which encourages them to bribe politicians with campaign contributions. One economist has estimated the return on campaign contributions to be about 2,000%.
Don't be fooled by political spin. Tariff is an old word for a tax. It applies to taxes on goods bought from outside the country. Foreigners do not pay U.S. taxes. Americans do. No one has become richer by paying more taxes of any kind and no country has become richer by raising taxes. Tariffs benefit a few producers and the federal government at the expense of everyone else.
Those who worship tariffs will reply that the U.S. imposed tariffs throughout the 19th century and grew rich. An economist would ask, "Did the U.S. grow rich because of tariffs or in spite of them?" The science says in spite of them. Also, tariffs were the main source of revenue to finance the U.S. government before the income tax. Tariffs replaced other taxes. And the federal government was tiny compared to today. So, the tariffs were a small hindrance to the economy.
Politicians hate the science of economics because it paints fantasy across most of their policies. Theologians hate it because the science destroys their idol, socialism. Both are science deniers. Adam Smith wrote his classic Wealth of Nations to obliterate the mercantilist philosophers of the 18th century who championed tariffs as a means to national wealth. Every good economist since has proven that tariffs are a disaster for the country imposing them. President Trump and the mercantilist politicians who promote tariffs are almost 300 years behind in their economics.
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