By Keith Schneringer
Status of the ongoing trade war with the U.S. & China as of December 18, 2018
There has been a trade fight brewing between the globe’s two heavyweight economies for a while now, and the impacts are beginning to be felt by those in the cleaning and maintenance industry.
The two heavyweight combatants? The United States of America and China.
The issue? Perceived trade imbalances.
The weapon of choice? Tariffs.
What’s a Tariff?
A tariff is a tax one country places on imports from another country. This tax is also sometimes referred to as a duty or a trade barrier.
According to Investor’s Business Daily, “the purpose of a tariff is to protect domestic production and jobs.” Tariffs have been used for many years by many countries, and although they do provide a degree of protection for the domestic manufacturing interests of the country who has imposed them by making imported goods artificially higher in price, economists argue that “other domestic sectors and customers ultimately pay for tariffs. The U.S. has applied tariffs on imports for centuries, but the global trend has been toward lower tariff rates, lower trade barriers and expanding global trade.”
