How Trade Wars affect Consumers

[Fragrance1122]

When countries put high tariffs on each other’s imports, trade war starts. 
The cost of imported goods goes up. 
Ordinary people pay more for the same things. 
Variety and choices in the market become less. 
Fewer models and brands are available to buy. 
Cheap, duplicate, low-quality products enter the market. 
You pay the same price but get poor quality. 
Inflation rises because everything gets expensive. 
Jobs and income get affected as businesses suffer. 
Even local products become expensive due to less competition.
Now the question is that how to protect yourself as a consumer when tarrifs hit ?
Does any country actually wins the trade war?

[hugeblack]

High tariffs are usually protective measures for the local economy. If the country is industrial or producing, high tariffs mean it is ease to compete with imports, and thus factories will find a greater opportunity to promote their products. If there is good industrial control, the consumer will get a locally manufactured product, with better quality and a lower price. Also, increasing local activity will increase employment opportunities in factories.

[Alpha Marine]

High tariffs are usually protective measures for the local economy. If the country is industrial or producing, high tariffs mean it is ease to compete with imports, and thus factories will find a greater opportunity to promote their products. If there is good industrial control, the consumer will get a locally manufactured product, with better quality and a lower price. Also, increasing local activity will increase employment opportunities in factories.

It doesn't usually work like this. When imports are phased out because of high tariffs, it discourages competition in the economy. And when there is no competition, there will either be inferior products or expensive goods.
The imported goods in some economy will make local businesses improve their products and the price of goods are less expensive when many business offer that product or services. But when you increase tariffs, the economy may reply in one of two ways.

The imported product or services may simply increase the cost of their products, and this creates a ripple effect on local products too, because they will also increase their prices when they see that the market is buying it for higher prices.
Or the foreign company will leave and the reduced supply maight lead to an increased price if the demand of those products remain the same.

No country has ever grown it's local production by incresing tarriffs on foreign goods. This idea only works in theory, but not practically. 
If you want to increase local production, you have to find ways to make doing business easier, give them funding, reduce the cost of doing business and make sure they can compete.

[Mate2237]

In the real sense trade wars are actually suffered by the ordinary citizens of a country. When ever there is a trade war going on between two countries import duty increases which will translate to an up surge in the price of goods and services between the two countries. This will bite hard on the ordinary citizens of a country because the cost of purchasing of items from the two countries will increase.


Just st like the trade Tariffs Trump has imposed on other countries. There has been a incredible increase in the price of goods from America, when ever I wants to get any thing from America because the price has triple due to the cost of importations.

[adultcrypto]

You are absolutely correct, the consumers pays the price of trade wars and every bad economic policy of the government. The business owners never suffer anything, sometimes they even make more money from such situation because it gives them the justification to inflate prices of commodities. I remembered when a new government that came into power in my country recklessly devalued our currency,  removed subsidy in energy and made so many wrong policies that crashed the economy. While many people were push into poverty, a lot of people especially the business owners were swimming in wealth. They made more profits witb a year than they made in a decade, the only people that suffered are the consumers.

[Berry2d]

You are absolutely correct, the consumers pays the price of trade wars and every bad economic policy of the government. The business owners never suffer anything, sometimes they even make more money from such situation because it gives them the justification to inflate prices of commodities. I remembered when a new government that came into power in my country recklessly devalued our currency,  removed subsidy in energy and made so many wrong policies that crashed the economy. While many people were push into poverty, a lot of people especially the business owners were swimming in wealth. They made more profits witb a year than they made in a decade, the only people that suffered are the consumers.

Each time I see prices of goods constantly increasing i never forget to identify where the problem is coming from, which is from some economic decisions made by the government all with a central objective of causing harm and pains to the citizens..
This issue of tariff is a very serious matter that requires serious attention because of its importance to the stabilisation of economies. Telling each other the truth,  serious attention need to be channelled towards the reduction of tariffs because that is majorly felt by the final consumers and not the distributors or manufacturers involved in the goods circulation.

[Fortify]

When countries put high tariffs on each other’s imports, trade war starts. 
The cost of imported goods goes up. 
Ordinary people pay more for the same things. 
Variety and choices in the market become less. 
Fewer models and brands are available to buy. 
Cheap, duplicate, low-quality products enter the market. 
You pay the same price but get poor quality. 
Inflation rises because everything gets expensive. 
Jobs and income get affected as businesses suffer. 
Even local products become expensive due to less competition.
Now the question is that how to protect yourself as a consumer when tarrifs hit ?
Does any country actually wins the trade war?

There are some caveats to this, where it is actually necessary to push back against certain abusive practices that can create trade imbalances. If one country has a massive manufacturing base then the theory goes that they could start dumping in other countries and try to undercut foreign competitors to push them out of business - then boost up prices when there are no alternatives left, which would be worse for consumers in the long run. This appears to be what China is doing with things like car manufacturing now. However it's never really a black and white area, but rather grey. You could argue that cheaper vehicles help consumers (but is the quality and safety standards the same) and free up money for them to spend elsewhere, and car manufacturer workers in places like Europe would then go on to more advanced industries.

[yixichloro2xx]

The only ways consumers can save them selves during these kinds of situations is to cut expenses. That is knowing the difference between their needs and wants. Then they budget and track what their money is spent on. We know inflation tends to increase when a Country is hit with massive Tariffs, the best thing to do is also have savings for Emergencies and other type of savings, Investing (to protect your money) that way the effect of your local currency devaluation won't be much. During trade wars I don't even know if there's a winner, what I know is that it is the consumers and sellers that feel the effects the most.

[bangjoe]

For countries that are dependent on imports and exports, this will be very difficult because the war on tariffs does make a lot of price increases on traded commodities, especially fuel oil rises because of the war which will paralyze the production or distribution of products and other activities that require this fuel.
 
What happened this time implies that a country needs to be independent economically, energy, food and technology so that it will not be too affected by what is happening in this chaotic part of the world, most countries are dependent on other countries and that is the problem that will have an impact like what is in the OP.

For me personally at this time is to just buy what I need for survival, who knows how long this chaotic situation will end, what is certain is that we must be prepared if the world can no longer be peaceful.

[o48o]

High tariffs are usually protective measures for the local economy. If the country is industrial or producing, high tariffs mean it is ease to compete with imports, and thus factories will find a greater opportunity to promote their products. If there is good industrial control, the consumer will get a locally manufactured product, with better quality and a lower price. Also, increasing local activity will increase employment opportunities in factories.

With "good industrial control" you mean that there should be existing scalable infrastructure and educated workers in place after those tariffs hit? That takes for ages to build.

And why would someone want to invest in some large scale infrastructure that probably wouldn't turn to profits for a long time? Especially when next president could just make new contracts or because these new regulations could change because of president's mood, or might found out to be illegal anyway?

And why wouldn't you think that existing manufacturers would drop prices when supply and demand would be suddenly favoring them?

[Mate2237]

High tariffs are usually protective measures for the local economy. If the country is industrial or producing, high tariffs mean it is ease to compete with imports, and thus factories will find a greater opportunity to promote their products. If there is good industrial control, the consumer will get a locally manufactured product, with better quality and a lower price. Also, increasing local activity will increase employment opportunities in factories.

This is true when ever there is high tariffs, which consequently affect the price of goods and services it tends to reduce importation to the country, which helps in the prodiction of such goods by the local market and industries. But that is for countries that is ready to change and reduce their dependency on foreign goods. Such countries will see a hike in tariffs coming from another country as an opportunity to grow and improving their local manufacturing industries.


This Tariffs from Trump is a big lesson that any country in the world should take note of and also learn too. Because Trump is only encouraging other county to look inward and improving their local industries , which will see them get self sufficiency on the long run.  Especially for the third world countries looking inward is the best instead of the blame game.

[slapper]

The government institutes import taxes. The tax is imposed on consumers. Consumers pay more. We then discuss how to "protect themselves as consumers" as if they were responsible for this.  Tariffs are a tax on your own population, you see it as punishment for someone else. The import prices increase, businesses charge you more, you spend more. But it continues to be sold as a strength of the nation.

When consumer choice is taken away, you do not only make buying more difficult. You change the perception of what is available for people. And that belief becomes internalized. Individuals cease to expect things to get better. Which, at least I do not think it is coincidental, is what makes the next round of tariffs easier to impose. Nobody riots over something they have already accepted as normal.

[Faisal2202]

In the US Trump has asked the authorities to investigate the oil industry because the people there have manipulated or done something to make more money, and the corruption they did was to make more profit. That extra profit they made became a burden on the citizens.

Now if we look around we will find in how many countries the same thing is happening. People become greedy. They start to increase rates artificially by making lame excuses. For example here if you wanted to buy cooking gas, you would have to pay 2x the previous rate (before the war). Now you are paying 2x of that, and when you ask them, they will make the same lame excuses, but so far not a single ship has been blocked that was meant to come here.

So why did they increase the prices if there was no shortage of oil and gas? That was manipulation. The stress and the news impacted everyone and made them greedy, so everyone buckled up and wanted to make more.

I am sharing this because as citizens we can't do much but at least we can show the faces of these people to the world, so they would never do the same thing again. We can sue them. We can report them to the government because they are artificially pumping the rates. We could take steps. I know we can do other things too, like investing and saving in deflationary assets, but that is not going to help us here in the long run.

[Doll2233]

When countries put high tariffs on each other’s imports, trade war starts. 
The cost of imported goods goes up. 
Ordinary people pay more for the same things. 
Variety and choices in the market become less. 
Fewer models and brands are available to buy. 
Cheap, duplicate, low-quality products enter the market. 
You pay the same price but get poor quality. 
Inflation rises because everything gets expensive. 
Jobs and income get affected as businesses suffer. 
Even local products become expensive due to less competition.
Now the question is that how to protect yourself as a consumer when tarrifs hit ?
Does any country actually wins the trade war?

There are multiple ways in which we as a consumers save ourselves from increasing tariff.

• We should be careful in our purchases and compare prices before buying anything.
• Stop buying cheaper and low quality products, buy products that are more durable.
• Try to buy local products.
• Buy from different brands instead of focusing on one brand.
• Try to make important and big purchases before expecting big tariff.
• Prioritize buying important products.
• Avoid taking debt specially during increasing tariff.
• Invest in different income sources.

Trade wars are often seen as negative because both sides have to suffer economic costs.

[DrBeer]

When countries put high tariffs on each other’s imports, trade war starts. 
The cost of imported goods goes up. 
Ordinary people pay more for the same things. 
Variety and choices in the market become less. 
Fewer models and brands are available to buy. 
Cheap, duplicate, low-quality products enter the market. 
You pay the same price but get poor quality. 
Inflation rises because everything gets expensive. 
Jobs and income get affected as businesses suffer. 
Even local products become expensive due to less competition.
Now the question is that how to protect yourself as a consumer when tarrifs hit ?
Does any country actually wins the trade war?

Duty wars, or trade wars, are primarily paid for by the consumer.
Then local producers suffer. Then the whole economy suffers.

The only country that can benefit is the one that can impose duties against other countries, while retaliatory duties will have no noticeable impact.
That is, if there is a strong imbalance in trade between the two countries.

[Spaceman1000$]

When countries put high tariffs on each other’s imports, trade war starts. 
The cost of imported goods goes up. 
Ordinary people pay more for the same things. 
Variety and choices in the market become less. 
Fewer models and brands are available to buy. 
Cheap, duplicate, low-quality products enter the market. 
You pay the same price but get poor quality. 
Inflation rises because everything gets expensive. 
Jobs and income get affected as businesses suffer. 
Even local products become expensive due to less competition.
Now the question is that how to protect yourself as a consumer when tarrifs hit ?
Does any country actually wins the trade war?

The thing is that, when you as a country decide to challenge another country in terms of trade war, you should be ready to have a production capacity that will service your citizens, you cannot depend on import and go on trade war with the country you import goods from, if you do that, you will be committing sacrilege, because that country you impose goods from will increase their tariff and it will affect you directly so when there is trade war between both countries everybody should be able to produce on the same capacity, so that one person stylist increase wouldn't affect the other.

[BlackHatCoiner]

High tariffs are usually protective measures for the local economy.

Thought experiment: Why not proceed forward and impose tariffs on each State separately? If blocking imports from China is "protective measure" and helps the employment and prices for the US locals, why not go one step further and place tariffs on South Carolina, if you're in Georgia? Wouldn't you improve employment and prices further for the Georgians this way?

South Carolina farmers consistently harvest roughly double the tonnage of peaches compared to their neighbors. Imagine the economic growth in Georgia from imposing tariffs on peaches!

[aoluain]

Its crazy that a government would resort to trade wars when they essentially hurt
their own citizens.

The start trade wars to try and punish their "enemy" and to try and get the domestic
consumer to purchase homemade goods but in reality the consumer ends up paying
more and the purchase of domestic goods does not increase to the levels desired by
the government anyway.

They could probably be better off reducing the TAX rate on domestic goods to increase
sales, which in turn can create more domestic employment.