What is Competitive Advantage?

So if we are not using Tariffs to artificially boost our competitiveness, how are we meant to make money with international trade?

Competitive advantage is the principle that a country will produce something it better at producing than anyone else. It could be a pricing advantage. Maybe the country has low wages and can make goods cheaply. It could be a technological advantage. The country could have advanced technologies that other countries do not know how to use as well.

In the Perfect Capital Market, a place with no taxes, government and free trade (think  Capitalist), countries produce what they have a competitive advantage in. The country will sell some of those goods as exports to other countries. The other countries will trade goods that they have a competitive advantage in.

For example, imagine a world of only two countries. They are called the United States and Australia. The United States is really good at making computers. The United States makes the best, most advanced computers in the world. Far better than what Australia can make. The United States has a competitive advantage in computers. Australia has a competitive advantage in solar panels. Australia’s solar panels are the most efficient in the world.

Australia produces solar panels at a cost of $10 and exports them to the United States. The solar Panels are sold to the United States for $20. The United States uses those solar panels to make it’s computers at a cost of $10. The United States exports it’s computers to Australia who buys them for $20. Australia in turn designs even better solar panels. Both countries are trading where they have a competitive advantage. Both countries benefit. In this case they benefit equally. Each country makes $10 profit.

What if there was a third good? Wheat. Both the United States and Australia are good at producing wheat. Australia is really efficient at producing wheat. The United States wants to trade it’s wheat with Australia instead of computers. Australia has cheap wheat because it is so efficient at producing wheat. Wheat costs $5 to produce in Australia and is sold for $10 in Australian shops. Australia will only pay the United States $10 for it’s wheat.

Wheat in the United States costs $6 to produce. The United States will only make $4 profit in Australia but Australia will make $5 profit. Australia has a competitive advantage for wheat. But it is small. The United States can try to sell it’s wheat to Australia, but it will never make as much money selling wheat as Australia. Eventually Australia will be ahead as all those dollars start to add up.

What would the United States be better off producing to make the most possible profit? Computers. Because that’s where the United States has a competitive advantage.

So what is a Tariff anyway?

There is a lot of talk about the US and China and other countries raising Tariffs against each other. So what is a Tariff anyway?

A tariff is a kind of tax placed on imports, sometimes from all countries and sometimes just from one country.  Usually trade arrangements are made between two countries so the tariffs will be at a country level.

In the past most countries had a lot of tariffs, sometimes really high ones.  These taxes encouraged people to buy goods made in their home country rather than imports with expensive taxes on them.  In Australia this system propped up the Textiles, Clothing and Footware industry until reforms were made and the tariffs reduced to almost zero, and in some cases zero.

Tariffs fall under an economic strategy called trade-barriers or protectionism. Protectionism aims to protect the home countries industries, even if they are not competitive and would not survive without the taxes on their competitors.

While tariffs are perhaps good for companies that are in protected industries, and they can continue to employ people, protectionism is bad for consumers and often forces them to pay more for the things they want to buy. In the 1980’s the cost of a T-shirt was much more expensive than the cost of a T-Shirt today.  Wages of factory workers in Australia were and still are much higher than wages in China and other manufacturing competitors, and so consumers in Australia were forced to pay more for their T-Shirts.

If you only have $100 to spend and a T-Shirt is $50 it only leaves you with $50 to spend on other things.  If there are no Tariffs and the T-Shirt is now $40 you have $60 left to spend on other things you want.  Basically you can’t buy as much under protectionism.  In Australia the price of a T-Shirt got much cheaper than $40, because eventually the foreign goods were so much cheaper and more competitive than the local goods. This soon put most of the Textiles, Clothing and Footware industry out of business.  That isn’t necessarily a bad thing,  it’s bad for a while for the people who loose their jobs, the factory owners and their investors. But remember, those factory workers were also having to buy a $50 T-shirt under protectionism, and now they don’t have to spend as much either.  The businesses were not competitive and were being propped up by an artificial advantage.  Generally the standard of living of people increases as protectionism is removed.

However like all things, it’s not black and white and not all people benefit equally from removal of trade barriers. Governments role in this type of situation where there is a massive restructure of the workforce due to change of government policy is to help affected workers find new jobs.  A task government doesn’t always get right.  It is also the responsibility of Industry to be open to employ people from declining industries and to the workers themselves to retrain or gain new skills.

These kinds of changes are worse when they are implemented too quickly, without time for people to adjust and find new work.  Another thing that can exacerbate the situation is when protectionism is removed when there is no other work around.  This can turn structural unemployment, as it is called, into long term unemployment.  This makes life very difficult for workers in affected industries. They may never find employment again. Due to unemployment they do not benefit as much from the rising living standards as people who remain in work gain from removing tariffs.

G20 Summit Argentina

The world is waiting for the outcome of key talks at the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires in Argentina. Primarily investors around the world are waiting for the outcome of the Trump – Xi Jinping talk in the hope that there will be some positive outcome to the trade wars that have placed markets around the world in a state of perpetual fear since they began.

There is a chance that tariffs will be reduced (small), a chance they will be increased (small) or a big chance there will be no change, there is even a small chance of a new Cold War breaking out but I don’t think that is at all likely anymore. Usually at these summits it’s more important what goes on behind the scenes with the advisors and delegates, but Trump is very independent and doesn’t always follow advice and Trump makes deals on his own terms, so this meeting could be crucial. It could also be just a rosey photo opportunity with no substance. We are all waiting.