Tariffs and the Common Market

Tariffs and Quotas

1.As liberals (in the true, not the modern perverted sense), our strategic objective is free international trade. The one important practical exception is that, while restrictions on trade with the Soviet will hurt the U.S., they may hurt the Soviet enough more so that we would willingly pay the price. The so-called practical objections that are urged, notably, lower wages abroad, are mostly based on a misunderstanding of the operation of a price system and are not valid objections to free trade either in principle or in practice. But since this is not directly pertinent to what follows, I refrain from expounding on the point here.

MF

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Milton Friedman

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Tariffs and Quotas

1.As liberals (in the true, not the modern perverted sense), our strategic objective is free international trade. The one important practical exception is that, while restrictions on trade with the Soviet will hurt the U.S., they may hurt the Soviet enough more so that we would willingly pay the price. The so-called practical objections that are urged, notably, lower wages abroad, are mostly based on a misunderstanding of the operation of a price system and are not valid objections to free trade either in principle or in practice. But since this is not directly pertinent to what follows, I refrain from expounding on the point here.