Tariffs are collected by the feds, and the increase cost for the seller may or may not be passed on to the consumer depending on the elasticity of demand for the product.
A lot of people don't seem to understand that Liberals used to support tariffs. Now I guess we are supposed to be free trade globalists.
If done properly, tariffs provide incentives to developing countries to improve environmental, safety, building and wage standards.
Howard Dean on trade:
NAFTA and the WTO only globalized the rights of multinational corporations, but they did not globalize the rights of workers. They are not going to globalize human rights, environmental rights, the right to organize. That needs to happen. And if it doesn’t happen, NAFTA and the WTO simply aren’t going to work. Right now, we’re exporting jobs.
We need to have a level playing field. We need to have the same kinds of environmental protections, labor protections, human rights protections and worker protections if we’re going to have open borders. That will not disadvantage exports.
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Unfortunately, our free trade policies have also had the effect of hollowing out our industrial capacity, and most worrisome, undermining our own middle class. All through this country, including in Vermont, I’ve seen factories move to China and Mexico, leaving American workers to learn new skills & earn lower wages.
Free trade must equal fair trade. We are subsidizing the sometimes awful environmental practices of our trading partners, and we are subsidizing the profits of multinational corporations by not having international labor standards. If free trade allows General Motors to set up a plant in Mexico, free trade should allow the UAW to organize that plant under conditions similar to those in the US. This isn’t wage parity; I am asking for shared ground rules.
http://www.ontheissues.org/Celeb/Howard_Dean_Free_Trade.htm
