Part I: Watch the following two videos on tariffs—one from an economic perspective and the other from a political perspective.
Part II: Check the respective tariff rate for the following products by copying and pasting the HS code into the search box
- Product 1 (men’s and boys’ overcoat, cotton): HS code 6101.20.00
- Product 2 (cotton): HS code 5201.00.05
- Product 3 (smartphone): HS code 8517.13.00
Discussion question: Based on the videos and your findings, how would you explain the differences in tariff rates for these products? Do you think tariffs are still necessary in the 21st century?
Additional readings (RT≠ endorsement):
- What are tariffs (Council on Foreign Relations)
- Donald Trump’s former trade chief makes the case for more tariffs (The Economist)
- How tariffs on clothing discriminate against women (Axios)
FASH455 Global Apparel & Textile Trade and Sourcing 
The first video put into perspective how much even a 2% difference can affect prices overall. I think that tariffs are necessary, but to a certain extent. We know that Trump obviously has a plan to raise tariffs to lower global trade and make for more American made products. A trade deficit does not make sense for the US. It is extremely harmful for consumers and businesses and also hurts global businesses and trade. Although it is obviously very appealing to start having more USA made products, this is something that is not possible and could be harmful for the environment and global connections. Free trade is something that I believe should be pushed more but it obvious that tariffs cannot be abolished completely. It also may be useful to implement a new system on how tariffs are assigned to certain products as they do vary so much between products and countries. I think that a lot of people don’t really understand the concept of tariffs and don’t know what it means when it is said that they will be raised. Many companies will start raising prices now due to these trade costs which leads to all sorts of economic issues as many will not be able to afford what they typically can due to these increased costs.
Great overall reflection here. I believe you showed a good understanding of the ideas presented in the video, and I share similar viewpoints. What I really connected with was your comment of people not really understanding the concepts of tariffs and what the effects are when they’re raised. I think this becomes super detrimental when politics get involved because people have opinions, yet they have no idea what they’re supporting. When people begin to support political ideas with no real knowledge on the subject it can be very harmful to society, which we saw in the Trump election. Many of my peers and people online would take the simple fact that Trump was going to lower cost of goods, and that sentence alone without any background knowledge prompted them to give their unwavering support. I believe the same idea here applies to tariffs, in that many people do not truly understand what it means to increase or decrease tariffs which is described in detail in the video. Trump’s plan is to reduce the United State’s trade deficits by increasing tariffs, but it is important to point out how dramatic of a change he wants to input with his goal being to reduce the US-China trade deficit by 180 billion dollars. In Fash455 we saw how there are so many factors that go into the statistics of imports and exports, and I think it will be interesting to see how dramatically increasing tariffs will affect these things, but with a number so high I think if it is put in place the statistics will speak for themselves and we can see if his plan really worked.