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自由貿(mào)易才是最優(yōu)解
美國(guó)喬治梅森大學(xué)莫卡特斯中心高級(jí)研究員維羅妮卡·德·魯吉(Veronique de Rugy)在《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》發(fā)表的文章更是直接指出,降關(guān)稅才是明智之舉:
為什么美國(guó)應(yīng)該降下所有關(guān)稅
特朗普的“關(guān)稅猛藥”不止針對(duì)中國(guó),也針對(duì)了不少其他國(guó)家,其中就包括美國(guó)親密鄰居兼好友加拿大。
文章表示,美國(guó)在關(guān)稅上的“漫無(wú)目的”和“毫無(wú)意義”的無(wú)理取鬧應(yīng)該停止:
The United States should stop the scattershot, pointless nonsense on tariffs and go the other way, and hard: It should drop all tariffs, even if the rest of the world doesn’t follow.
美國(guó)在關(guān)稅問(wèn)題上漫無(wú)目的、毫無(wú)意義的無(wú)理取鬧該停止了,它應(yīng)該堅(jiān)決地走另一條路:降低所有的關(guān)稅,即便其他國(guó)家沒(méi)有采取相同措施,也應(yīng)如此。
為了講明白自由貿(mào)易的重要性,這位高級(jí)研究員搬出了亞當(dāng)·斯密等經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家的理論……
Economists since Adam Smith have understood that free trade is the best policy. Studies show that countries with freer trade have both higher per-capita incomes and faster rates of productivity growth.
亞當(dāng)·斯密以來(lái)的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家都認(rèn)為自由貿(mào)易是最好的政策。有研究表明,貿(mào)易更自由的國(guó)家,人均收入更高,勞動(dòng)生產(chǎn)率增長(zhǎng)更快。
Economists have also long understood that barriers to trade, while pitched as a way to help domestic workers, always heavily penalize domestic consumers.
經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家們也早就知道,貿(mào)易發(fā)展的障礙,即關(guān)稅,其初衷是幫助國(guó)內(nèi)工人,卻總會(huì)嚴(yán)重?fù)p害國(guó)內(nèi)消費(fèi)者的利益。
這對(duì)特朗普政府來(lái)說(shuō)也是一樣的道理:
The same is true of Mr. Trump’s steel tariffs. Claiming that they protect a vital industry and its 140,000 workers, tariff supporters never mention how much harder they make things for the 6.5 million manufacturing workers in steel-consuming industries. Add to that number all of us who consume goods made of steel, and you get an even larger figure.
所以,特朗普對(duì)鋼征稅也是同樣的道理。關(guān)稅支持者們聲稱(chēng)政府保護(hù)了一個(gè)重要產(chǎn)業(yè)及其14萬(wàn)工人,卻從不告訴你,那些以鋼鐵為生的產(chǎn)業(yè)的650萬(wàn)制造工人日子有多難過(guò)。對(duì)了,還要加上我們所有購(gòu)買(mǎi)鋼鐵消費(fèi)品的消費(fèi)者,這個(gè)數(shù)值只會(huì)越來(lái)越大。
如果反其道而行之,關(guān)稅將會(huì)抬高成品價(jià)格,對(duì)美國(guó)企業(yè),以及相關(guān)行業(yè)的就業(yè)帶來(lái)沉重打擊。