For a contrary opinion, read “The Church’s Low View of Tariffs.”
What business do I, as a Catholic, have supporting all of these tariffs that Trump has imposed on so many countries? Aren’t tariffs inherently immoral?
To answer these questions, let’s first look at what the Church specifically teaches on tariffs. The answer is, essentially, nothing. Well, not exactly “nothing.” I could not find any specific mention of the word “tariff” in any magisterial document as found on the Vatican’s website, other than a mention that “tariff and trade barriers” exist for economic aid and development, whereas none seemingly exists for arms shipments (John Paul II, Sollicitudo Rei Socialis 24), and this from Benedict XVI’s Caritas Veritate: “It is significant that some of the causes of this situation were identified in Populorum Progressio, such as the high tariffs imposed by economically developed countries, which still make it difficult for the products of poor countries to gain a foothold in the markets of rich countries” (33). There are also a few other mentions of tariffs on the Vatican website that appeared in talks or papers presented at various meetings and conferences—such as the World Trade Organization—but nothing that would be considered magisterial teaching.
High tariffs, as Caritas Veritate suggests, can be unjust in particular situations, but tariffs, as an economic tool, are not inherently immoral. Nowhere does the Church declare such a thing. It is the manner in which a tariff is used by a country that can be judged either moral or immoral, just or unjust.
What the Church does do, though, with regard to the use of tariffs, is give us its social teaching, which we can use as a basis or context for coming to prudential judgments as to whether tariffs are being applied justly. Concepts such as solidarity, subsidiarity, equality of opportunity, ensuring human dignity, the rights of workers, and so on that are found in the Church’s social teaching can be used to evaluate any given tariff to see if a Catholic should oppose it or not.
For example, if a country—say, the U.S.—uses a tariff in such a way that it results in great harm to the economy of a much poorer country, which is to say it harms the human dignity and the rights of workers in that country, then that will generally be considered an immoral use of a tariff. How could the U.S. do that? Let’s say the U.S. imposes a 500-percent tariff on coffee imports from Guatemala and that the U.S. is Guatemala’s largest coffee customer. This tariff results in distributors in the U.S. no longer buying Guatemalan coffee, which causes many small, relatively poor coffee farmers in Guatemala to lose their livelihoods, their lands, their ability to provide for their families, and so on. Catholic social teaching would tend to consider that tariff unjust.
On the other hand, let’s say Guatemala put a 500% tariff on all coffee imports. It does this to protect a growing coffee industry in the country from cheaper foreign coffee. The tariff allows Guatemalan coffee growers to get on their feet and eventually to compete with coffee growers in other countries. These Guatemalan coffee growers provide a living for their families and for the families of their workers and provide much-needed tax revenue for Guatemala. Plus Guatemala is not a large customer of any other country vis-à-vis coffee, so the tariff does not do any substantial harm to coffee growers in other countries. All good.
All of this is to say that tariffs, in and of themselves, are morally neutral. They can be just or unjust based on how they are used. So my support for President Trump’s tariffs cannot be said to be de facto contrary to Church teaching.
The question that needs to be asked next is this: Is any of these tariffs being used in an immoral way? I cannot answer that question with regard to each tariff. For one thing, there are close to 200 countries upon which tariffs have been imposed. For another, the tariffs have been in effect for only a few weeks, so their full impact has yet to be seen. Plus there are ongoing talks with any number of countries regarding these tariffs, so the final dispositions of the tariffs are yet to be decided.
Have the people in any of those countries been harmed by these tariffs in a way that could definitively be considered immoral? I don’t have enough information to say yes or no. I don’t know if anyone does at this point. But if it does come to light that this or that tariff on this or that country is doing great harm to that country, to its economy, or to the human dignity of its citizens, then I will oppose this or that tariff.
You might think, “Why not oppose the tariffs if one or more of them could do harm?” I would reply, “Why not support the tariffs if one or more of them could do good?” And I believe that these tariffs, in general, could do great good—for our country and for many others. I also believe that very few, if any, of the tariffs will remain in place in their current form. If folks haven’t figured it out by now, Trump is using these tariffs—all of them—as a negotiating tool. To what end? For freer and more equitable trade conditions for all countries involved, at least according to the president. Would that not be considered a just and moral reason for the tariffs?
So here is my direct answer to the original question: Why do I support these tariffs? Because I believe that the United States has, for the last several decades, been in a downward spiral morally, spiritually, culturally, militarily, and (particularly pertinent to this article) economically. And I believe that one of the major factors contributing to the economic decline has been our international trade deficit.
We have an overall trade deficit each year in the hundreds of billions of dollars. For a short period, that can be tolerated, but not in the long run. Over the last several years, we’ve seen trillions of dollars of wealth, along with hundreds of thousands of jobs, leave our country. Factor in a $33 trillion (and growing) national debt, Social Security and Medicare on their way to bankruptcy, and some other adverse economic situations, and you have some of the necessary ingredients in place for a massive economic collapse in the not-too-distant future, unless something radical is done to turn things around.
All these people holding forth about how horrible these tariffs are, all the chaos they’re causing in the financial markets, all the crying politicians—all of these folks are reacting as if they know, with 100-percent certainty, the mid- and long-term consequences (or even the short-term consequences) of these tariffs. They don’t! Again, these tariffs are not set in stone; they are simply Round 1 of the trade negotiations.
Finally, what if Trump’s tariffs act, essentially, as a crackdown on human rights violations by countries, such as China, that engage in practices such as slave labor, child labor, and so on? What if, by making products from those countries more expensive, the tariffs force companies that currently take advantage of the cheap labor that results from such exploitative practices to move their manufacturing to other countries with lower tariffs, where such practices are not tolerated? In other words, what if the tariffs penalize countries that benefit from unethical labor practices? Wouldn’t that be considered a moral use of tariffs?
I’ll close by reiterating that tariffs are not de facto immoral or unjust. So if someone wishes to argue that Trump’s tariffs are indeed immoral or unjust, then please don’t make a theoretical argument about how they “could be” so. Tell me exactly how they “are” so. Tell me who exactly is being actually injured by a particular tariff, how, and how that is definitively contrary to Catholic teaching. If you can’t do that, then you cannot declare any given tariff—to say nothing of tariffs in general—unjust and absolutely contrary to Church teaching.
Image credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.