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Friday, July 21, 2006

Do Tariffs have an Upside

Now I am a hardline free marketeer, and would love to see a world without tariffs. My belief is that usually the cost of the tariffs outweigh the benefits. Our beloved EU has taken it a step further however, if this is to be believed.

According to the British Retail Consortium the EU decided to hike the tax even though it will provide no conceivable benefits to European bag manufacturers.
The tax in question is a tariff on plastic bags. So if there is no benefit to any EU based manufacturer, is this just a revenue raising exercise?

2 comments:

The Remittance Man said...

I must admit that the 20c per bag tax levied in South Africa has reduced calls for discarded plastic bags to be named the national flower. So maybe, in some cases, tax based incentives, or disincentives, do have a place in society.

RM

Serf said...

Mr Remittance Man. Your suggestion is another thing entirely, and one that I can see some virtue in.

However in this case they are trying to protect local producers, who cannot actually supplied the required product. Hence this is protectionism without even protecting.