An export subsidy has the opposite effect on terms of trade to the effect of an

Question

An export subsidy has the opposite effect on terms of trade to the effect of an import tariff. Domestically a tariff will raise the price of the import good, deteriorating the domestic terms of trade. A production subsidy for the export product will lower the local price of the export good, lowering the domestic terms of trade for the country. Hence the export subsidy and the import tariff have the same effect. This analysis seems to contradict the first sentence in this paragraph. Discuss this paradox.

Explanation / Answer

It is a very common clever device that when anyone has attained the summit of greatness, he kicks away the ladder by which he has climbed up, in order to deprive others of the means of climbing up after him. In this lies the secret of the cosmopolitical doctrine of Adam Smith, and of the cosmopolitical tendencies of his great contemporary William Pitt, and of all his successors in the British Government administrations. Any nation which by means of protective duties and restrictions on navigation has raised her manufacturing power and her navigation to such a degree of development that no other nation can sustain free competition with her, can do nothing wiser than to throw away these ladders of her greatness, to preach to other nations the benefits of free trade, and to declare in penitent tones that she has hitherto wandered in the paths of error, and has now for the first time succeeded in discovering the truth

According to Britannica.com, "The theory of comparative advantage provides a strong argument in favour of free trade and specialization among countries. The issue becomes much more complex, however, as the theory

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