If there’s one thing every economist agrees on, it’s that the only people who benefir from tariffs are cynical politicians, says Daniel Freeman

Economists almost never agree on anything. Even if you ask a single economist their view on a subject they will generally give you at least three contradictory positions.

This makes the overwhelming consensus among economists across the political spectrum in favour of free trade and against tariffs – taxes on imported goods – all the more remarkable.

The reasons for this consensus are numerous and well evidenced: tariffs result in higher costs for your own consumers and producers that buy foreign inputs, they shift investment and labour away from more productive industries into less productive ones, and they reduce the specialisation which drives much economic growth.

And yet the world’s largest economy under the leadership of President Trump is now heading in the........

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