This article is about how the Argentinian government is protecting the domestic production of BlackBerrys in order to "cut foreigners' share of Argentina's mobile-phone market". Even though this seems to be a valid case of protectionism, it will "cost $23m upfront, plus $4,500-5,000 a month per worker, some 15 times more than in Asia". This is because Asian laborers and factories have already perfected the production of cell phones. They have the 'factor endowment' in the production of cell phones. This is because to start a factory in Asia, the price is already low. Also the labor is cheap and skilled. The start up price for this endeavor is already going to be $23m, they will also have to train the workers and pay them more than they would if the Argentinian companies outsourced the production to Asia. Another problem with the domestic production of cell phones in Argentina is that Argentina, at this moment, is not known for their production of cell phones. They are not a place in which companies like Motorola or Nokia look for to manufacture their products.
Argentina could do this but it will take them a long time before they clean of their capital debt. In the short run, they will not make any money but nobody knows for sure what the long run has in store for this unorthodox market.
In my opinion, Argentina should focus its money on something that will be profitable not only in the long run but also in the short run. This is possible. Argentina has a factor endowment, its tourism. It does not take that much money and effort to increase the amount of tourism in a country that is obviously beautiful and worth seeing. Even if they were not to invest in tourism, they could focus on, for instance, the exporting of more beef or fish. These are things that people already are accustomed to getting from Argentina. It all bundles down to this: when you think about Japanese production, you think cars and phones. When you think about Argentinian production, you
This article is about that China fears that if the US turns to protectionism it will have very bad effect and undermine the global economy, it would also harm international efforts to combat global warming.
This article is about a free trade agreement that US and South Korea made. They have finally reached an agreement four years after they had initially agreed on trading. This shows that there are various barriers in free trade. One of the reasons for why the US wanted to trade now was to make more job opportunities in the US.
This article is about protectionist steps that could spark a global trade war have violated that promise, with countries from Russia to the United States to China enacting measures aimed at limiting the flow of imported goods.
This article talks about how protectionist policies in one country can spark retaliatory policies in another, leading to a global trade war and inhibiting free trade.
This article is about how consumers are paying more for fuel than they have before. The "Big Six" says that it is because of the "opacity" in the price system. This is due to tariffs. There is a "lack of competition" because consumers are unable to verify which prices are the lowest due to the tariffs. Consumers may be purchasing energy from the least efficient company and not know it due to the artificial prices due to tariffs. There are also two other problems. In a supply and demand graph with a tariff in place, one expects that when a tariff is set, the demand will decrease; this is not totally true for energy. Energy is a very price inelastic good and therefore the quantity demanded will not change by much when the price is artificially risen. The other problem with this scenario is that there are only six major energy producers, the "Big Six". This market is a very oligopolist market. There might be a decline in competition simply due to the "Big Six" working as a group to form an imperfect market.
The main idea of this article is exactly what the title states. China says that the high tariffs on solar panels produced in China "could undermine global economy and harm international efforts to combat global warming". Here, we can see several problems: scarcity and sustainability - the protection towards Chinese solar panels may force countries to use non-renewable sources as energy instead of renewable sources of energy such as the solar system. The article also mentions China's retaliation towards the US, as China would "purchase less American factory equipment and raw materials for making solar panels".