Answers to your questions, Mr.Chris

1) Whether tariffs are good or bad?

At first what is a tariff? A tariff is a tax imposed on goods when they are moved across a political boundary. They are usually associated with protectionism, the economic policy of restraining trade between nations. For political reasons, tariffs are usually imposed on imported goods, although they may also be imposed on exported goods. In the other words tariifs are the taxes on imports.

When we answer to this question we should consider what are the advantages and disadvantages of having tariffs for one particular country.

Advantages:

• protest domestic industries from overseas competitors
• infant industries (young, new)
• prevent unemployment
• reduce current account deficit
• political pressure
• attract FDI (foreign direct investment)

Disadvantages:

• discourages efficiency
• inefficient allocation of resources
• increases in costs of production/cause inflation
• consumer choice is restricted/consumer surplus decreases
• retaliation/trade war

2) Why do European countries over-produce food and destroy it instead of giving to poor and starving countries?

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies and programmes. It means that government protects domestic farmers from overseas competitors by subsidies, tariffs and quotas. They encourage them to produce more or even subsidise them for not producing anything if it is over-producing.

There are several reasons why European countries do not give over-produced food to poor countries:

• costs of transfering of the food. If they transfer it by plane, ship or car it will cost a lot of money
• there are some types food which is non-transferable, it can not be keeped for a log time
• distribution of the food might be wrong
• it will help prevent starving only for a short period of time
• local farmers might be affected by the free food from the European countries an in the long run it can make situation in the starving countries even worth than it is.