One of the highest priorities of a BNP government, according to their policy statements, would be the introduction of a massive tax hike on imports. These tariff barriers, they claim, would “[protect] British companies from unfair foreign imports” – but in reality they’d drastically raise prices, decrease choice and limit quality. (You can read the details here).
The BNP are frustratingly vague about what sectors they’d protect, and what levels of tariffs they’d set. By disembling this way they can better promise to save everyone’s job, and avoid mention of the hard sacrifices that consumers and businesses would have to be made in return.
As an estimate, let’s assume they wished to take us back to the level of protection we saw in many countries at the beginning of the twentieth century. A typical average rate of protection across countries then was about 40% – that works out at an £80bn tax rise, or £1,300 a head, [1].
Although that would be bad enough, the tariffs would hit British companies too, especially the manufacturing companies the BNP claims it wants to save. Many of the vital components that British companies need would see their prices soaring, in the process sending many of those firms bust. Other countries would rapidly slap trade sanctions on Britain, and in the process we’d soon lose our export trade.
Economists have known since Adam Smith that tariffs are a nationalistic fallacy. Yet Nick Griffin stubbornly supports this policy. He wants impose the sort of old fashioned protectionism supported by Contintental dicators in the 1930s/40s. The doctrine of free trade across the world was invented in Britain, the principle remains the key to our island’s prosperity and it has enriched literally billions of people around the world.
Free trade has brought tumbling down the prices of food, clothes, furniture, cars and gadgets, allowing all of us to enjoy the luxuries that were once the sole preserve of the rich. It allows to experience the best of the world – French fashion, American software, German cars or Italian food. It keeps British companies competitive and the British economy dynamic.
Free trade is a British idea, and we should be proud of it. There’s nothing British about the BNP’s economic policies.
[1] We’re also assuming a 50% elasticity of demand here
Tags: economics, policy, tariff
