Via Matthew Yglesias, we see this tibit of idiocy:
The Bush administration ruled today that United States computer chip makers and catfish farmers were subjected to unfair foreign competition and ordered stiff tariffs on imports of South Korean computer chips and Vietnamese catfish.
The Commerce Department rulings upheld, with minor adjustments, preliminary tariff determinations that the agency issued earlier in the year.
In the computer chip case, the department ruled that the South Korean government unfairly subsidized two big South Korean manufacturers. The department ordered tariffs as high as 44.71 percent.
In the catfish case, the department determined that Vietnam had dumped catfish on the American market at unfairly low prices. It said that catfish imports from Vietnam would be subject to anti-dumping tariffs ranging from 44.66 percent to 63.88 percent.
I have mentioned how much I hate tariffs, haven’t I?
the talking dog
What are you going to do? Bush talks a good free market game– but he doesn’t mean it. Alas, in his own parlance– if he ain’t cuttin’ tariffs, then its a tax INCREASE.