Tariff

A tariff is a tax imposed on imports or exports. Tariffs are an attempt to "protect" a domestic market from foreign competition. They can help countries develop by discouraging them from importing from developed imperialist countries and allowing them to produce goods domestically.^[1]

As capitalism develops, it seeks to break down all barriers on trade, tariffs included. Tariffs represent the nation-state's sovereignty above the market, thus corporations who seek to become "transnational" will lobby to break down a state's ability to implement tariffs, along with other national attempts at economic sovereignty. The Bretton Woods Institutions (the IMF, World Bank, WTO, formerly GATT) and their "structural adjustment programs" are an example of the tools imperialist capitalism uses to break down trade protectionism and economic sovereignty.^[2]^[3]

References[edit | edit source]

↑ Vijay Prashad (2008). The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World: 'Buenos Aires' (p. 69). [PDF] The New Press. ISBN 9781595583420 [LG]
↑ Michael Parenti (1995). Against Empire: 'Chapter 2 - Imperial Domination Updated; Globalisation by GATT'. City Lights Publishers.
↑ “This then provides the theoretical underpinning for the policy prescriptions of the neo-classical paradigm employed by the Bretton Woods Institutions in the structural adjustment programmes. Free markets and free trade are supposed to provide internal and external equilibrium and the forces of competition then produce increasing efficiency in the use of scarce resources, providing the economic growth that is vital for economic development. It is therefore argued that governments in underdeveloped economies have often intervened to a far greater degree than neo-classical principles would suggest, resulting in a lack of economic growth and the absence of economic development. The remedy must therefore be to free prices from government intervention, in terms of regulation and subsidy, to privatise state-owned firms, to reduce state expenditure in favour of private investment and provision, and to remove artificial barriers to trade, such as tariffs and quotas.”

Giles Mohan, Ed Brown, Bob Milward, and Alfred Zack-Williams (2000). Structural Adjustment: 'What is structural adjustment?' (pp. 33-34). Oxford: Routledge.

[:1-1] Vijay Prashad (2008). The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World: 'Buenos Aires' (p. 69). [PDF] The New Press. ISBN 9781595583420 [LG]

[2] Michael Parenti (1995). Against Empire: 'Chapter 2 - Imperial Domination Updated; Globalisation by GATT'. City Lights Publishers.

[3] “This then provides the theoretical underpinning for the policy prescriptions of the neo-classical paradigm employed by the Bretton Woods Institutions in the structural adjustment programmes. Free markets and free trade are supposed to provide internal and external equilibrium and the forces of competition then produce increasing efficiency in the use of scarce resources, providing the economic growth that is vital for economic development. It is therefore argued that governments in underdeveloped economies have often intervened to a far greater degree than neo-classical principles would suggest, resulting in a lack of economic growth and the absence of economic development. The remedy must therefore be to free prices from government intervention, in terms of regulation and subsidy, to privatise state-owned firms, to reduce state expenditure in favour of private investment and provision, and to remove artificial barriers to trade, such as tariffs and quotas.”

Giles Mohan, Ed Brown, Bob Milward, and Alfred Zack-Williams (2000). Structural Adjustment: 'What is structural adjustment?' (pp. 33-34). Oxford: Routledge.

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