Two completely different opinions about international trades are discussed these days. The first one is that countries should be able to trade without any tariffs or taxes, and the other one is that countries should put taxes on imports so that local industries can be protected. I will examine each side’s benefits and state my own answer.
Firstly, trades without taxes are benefitial for major powers like United States, China, or Japan. If they can compete in the market freely, they will maximise their profit and earn huge amount of money. These countries are likely to produce high technological devices such as smart phones and computers. Those devices usually need so many parts and they are imported from all over the world. That is one of the reasons why those products are expensive. If all the assembles are done without taxes, the prices will be a lot more cheaper as well.
On the other hand, trades with taxes are good for countries who don’t have strong powers. Without taxes, products from local area will easily be beaten by imported cheap products. The perfect example for this is what happened in India under British colonisation. India used to produce high quality cotton cloths until British empire arrived. They replaced those cloths with their own products made in factories. That took a job away from local artisans and the quality also went down. Local handmade products usually have better quality than the ones made in mass production. Therefore, it also benefits consumers to protect local industries.
In summary, both trades with and without taxes have advantages. However, I believe tariffs are very important to secure the enployment of the local people and the quality of the product. I agree with the second opinion. Though, putting too much taxes on imports causes a lot worse problems so it should be moderate amount.