? I disagree with the statement “Trade barriers are coming down all over the world”. Many countries and governments continue to create trade barriers for foreign importers and domestic exporters with many measures, notably tariffs and quotas to protect the domestic manufacturing enterprises. Firstly, tariff is a tax imposed by a government on goods and services imported from other countries that serves to increase the price and make imports less desirable, or at least less competitive, versus domestic goods and services. For example, China responded to President Donald Trump by negotiating new trade tariffs on US goods worth $ 60 billion. Prices of some US-made goods such as pork, soybeans, so on could surge after China applied this retaliation to the United States. If the sales of these companies are reduced, or if China finds alternative sources to buy these products at cheaper prices than directly imported from the United States, then this will be a big problem for the American famers.
Secondly, the government directly limits the permitted import volume to a certain maximum level (import quota) in order to protect domestic industries against foreign competition. For example, the Ministry of Finance of Canada will review the application of safeguard measures for seven steel products imported from Vietnam to protect domestic producers. Therefore, domestic prices of imported goods will increase and cause difficulties for the steel enterprises of Vietnam.
