Away from the negative consequences that economists have guessed to the recent American customs duties, I find myself tending towards Trump’s directions in imposing customs duties on imports from the countries of the world, especially since they are almost all of them impose similar fees on American imports for a long time to protect their local industries. This point alone, in my view, is enough to make what Trump is doing just and even necessary.
One of the positives of imposing customs duties on imports is to increase government revenues, and this in itself is a basic goal for the Trump administration, which received a government suffering a financial deficit that touches 2 trillion dollars annually. The customs duties are expected to add a row to the treasury, ranging from 400 to 600 billion dollars annually; Which contributes to reducing the deficit undoubtedly.
Also, one of the positive customs duties objectives is to make imports more expensive on the consumer, which drives him to buy the local product, which in turn will motivate American companies to revive the local industry instead of transferring them to East Asian countries and South America. It is known that the “rust belt” or “steel belt” are two names for the industrial states in America. It saw its factories left for cheap countries; This makes its residents suffer from repeated hairdos and unemployment, until they became the main catalyst and fuel behind the rejection of the economic and globalization policies that lost them their day.
On this exact point, it seems to me that globalization in its current form uttered its last breath. This economic trend is no longer suitable for many countries, especially those that were considered industrial at one time, as it is the first loser of its unrelated economic openness, which cost it most of its industry. Trump’s goodness is that he fights globalization, and challenges it, which is what the modern world considers a stubborn economic principle and does not change.
In addition to all that has been mentioned, one of the positives of customs duties is the possibility of employing them as an effective negotiation tool for foreign policy, and Trump has already used it in his second term starting with Mexico to discourage them from allowing immigrants to flow across the border, with Colombia to force her to receive illegal immigrants after she rejected this for a short period.
I believe that Trump’s attempt to revive the industry in his country is a legitimate attempt and is a bold pause towards unlimited economic openness, which despite its positives in reducing prices on the consumer and providing multiple options for it, but it has harmed local industries a lot not only in America, but globally, which made the industry a monopoly on only a few countries in the world. (Economic protectionism) that Trump pursues may be an opportunity for our countries to follow a similar method to protect its small industry sector and even advance it instead of complete commercial openness and great dependence on import.
