TARIFF. Customs, taxes, tolls. or the tribute payable on goods to the State is called customs; The duty rate &c. also has this name and the list of dutiable items is also known as the customs tariff. 2. For the customs tariff on imports of foreign goods into the United States. This system, known as mercantilism, relied heavily on tariffs and even outright trade bans. The colonizing country, which considered itself a competitor of other colonizers, imported raw materials from its colonies, which were generally forbidden to sell their raw materials elsewhere. The colonizing country transformed the materials into finished products, which it sold back to the colonies. High tariffs and other barriers were introduced to ensure that settlements only bought industrial products from their colonizers. At that time, free trade experienced a 50-year resurgence, culminating in the creation of the World Trade Organization in 1995, which acts as an international forum for settling disputes and establishing ground rules.
Free trade agreements such as NAFTA and the European Union have also increased. However, skepticism about this model, sometimes referred to as neoliberalism by critics, which combines it with 19th century liberal arguments for free trade, grew and Britain voted to leave the European Union in 2016. That same year, Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election on a platform that included a call for high tariffs on Chinese and Mexican imports. The intention of this dictionary was to create an extensive list of terms commonly used in trade negotiations, and in particular in the context of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), in order to provide an information tool for the general public. The dictionary is presented in the four official languages of the FTAA: English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. The compilation does not seek to represent the entire universe of terms used, nor to anticipate or influence in any way the definitions or approaches currently proposed by a country in trade negotiations. In fact, many of the definitions in the publicly available draft FTAA agreement, which are still the subject of difficult debate, have been excluded from this dictionary. Definitions are based on generally available sources, including other trade agreements. An alphabetical list of terms is included for ease of use of the dictionary. The terms and their definitions are presented in the context of general negotiating topics addressed in the FTAA and other trade negotiations.
An electronic version of this document is available on the following websites: IDB, OAS and ECLAC. A customs duty is a tax levied by one country on goods and services imported from another. The term tariff is also used in relation to the actual duty(s) actually payable on these items. However, tariffs can have unforeseen side effects. They can make domestic industry less efficient and less innovative by reducing competition. They can hurt domestic consumers, as lack of competition tends to drive up prices. They can create tension by favouring certain industries or geographic regions over others. For example, tariffs designed to help manufacturers in cities can hurt consumers in rural areas who do not benefit from the policy and are likely to pay more for industrial products. Finally, trying to pressure a rival country through tariffs can lead to an unproductive cycle of retaliation, commonly referred to as a trade war.
Governments can impose tariffs to increase revenue or protect domestic industries—particularly emerging industries—from foreign competition. By making foreign-produced goods more expensive, tariffs can make domestically produced alternatives more attractive. Governments that use tariffs to benefit certain industries often do so to protect businesses and jobs. Tariffs can also be used as an extension of foreign policy: imposing tariffs on a trading partner`s largest exports is a way to exert economic leverage. Critics of tariff-abolishing multilateral trade agreements – from both ends of the political spectrum – argue that these agreements undermine national sovereignty and promote a race to the bottom in terms of wages, worker protection, product quality and standards. Proponents of such agreements counter that tariffs lead to trade wars, hurt consumers, stifle innovation and foster xenophobia. Tariffs are used to restrict imports by raising the prices of goods and services purchased in another country, making them less attractive to domestic consumers. There are two types of rates: A specific rate is charged as a flat fee depending on the type of item, such as a rate of $1,000 for a car. An ad valorem duty is levied on the basis of the value of the item, e.g. 10% of the value of the vehicle. Both approaches – free trade, which is based on the idea of comparative advantage, on the one hand, and limited trade, based on the idea of a zero-sum game, on the other – have had their ups and downs in popularity. Relative free trade flourished in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the idea emerged that international trade had made large-scale wars between nations so costly and counterproductive as to be obsolete.
World War I proved this idea wrong, and nationalist trade approaches, including high tariffs, dominated until the end of World War II. What`s up? – Site map – Calendar Trade Agreement – FTAA Process – Trade Issues Scottish economist Adam Smith was one of the first to question the validity of this arrangement. His «Wealth of Nations» was published in 1776, the same year the British American colonies declared independence in response to high taxes and restrictive trade agreements. Later authors such as David Ricardo developed Smith`s ideas and led to the theory of comparative advantage. If one country can produce a particular product better, while another country can produce another country better, each country should devote its resources to the activity in which it excels. Countries should then trade with each other, rather than erecting barriers that force them to divert resources to activities they are not doing well.
