Trumps 30% tariff on imported solar panels

[Anomalocaris]

Trump just said on the SOTU speech, that he wants trade relations to be fair and reciprocal.  What a lying asshat.

Implication of Richardo’s Law of comparative advantages is the benefit of trade amongst multiple parties is maximized when bilataeral trades between individual pairs of parties amongst them are not reciprocal.  Each party should focus on the manufacture and export of those goods in which it has the greatest comparative, not absolute, advantage.  

Amongst a group of Nations, Nation 1 with comparative advantage in goods A should focus on manufacture and export of goods A, and purchase all of its needs for goods B from Nation 2, which has camparatige advantage in goods B.  This remains just as true even if Nation 2 has little need of goods A, therefore import Little from Nation 1, thus when viewed in the bilateral context Nation 1 runs an aweful trade deficit with Nation 2.

The reason why Nation 1 Should not demand reciprocal trade relationship with Nation 2 is that by focusing on Goods A Instead of dissipating it’s advantages and also making something else that Nation 2 would wish to buy to redress the bilateral trade imbalance, Nation 1 actually maximizes the total value of its own global export to all of the other nations collectively. So trade deficit with Nation 2 actually improves Nation 1’s overall trade situations with all other nations collectively.

As with trump himself and much of the mean and narrow minded conservative world view, everything is viewed through a bilateral transactional and bigger slice of smaller pie lens, and no allowance is made for either global planning, collective good, or indirect action. It is as if we are still a hackling troop of baboons instead of a specie that has not only developed the academic field of economics, but also have the behavioral wherewithal to benefit from it.