What are tariffs, and how do they work? · TED-Ed
了解关税的定义及其对全球贸易的影响，适合练习经济词汇和逻辑表达。
In 1930, as the Great Depression ravaged the United States, President Herbert Hoover made a bold economic decision.
1930年，当大萧条席卷美国时，赫伯特·胡佛总统做出了一个大胆的经济决策。
With the goal of supporting American farmers and manufacturers, he approved a sweeping 20% tax on all imported agricultural and industrial goods.
为了支持美国的农民和制造商，他批准对所有进口的农产品和工业产品征收20%的关税。
He believed making foreign goods more expensive would encourage consumers to buy domestic, thus funneling cash into American businesses and creating more jobs.
他认为，提高外国商品的价格会促使消费者购买国产商品，从而将资金引入美国企业，进而创造更多就业机会。
But Hoover's plan completely backfired.
然而，胡佛的计划完全适得其反。
Other countries retaliated by taxing American goods, leading exports to fall and global trade to decline.
其他国家通过对中国商品征税来进行报复，导致美国商品的出口量下降，进而使全球贸易也受到负面影响。
In the end, this policy led American prices to spike and caused even more unemployment.
最终，这项政策导致美国物价飙升，进而引发了更多的失业问题。
These disastrous outcomes of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act were no surprise to the over 1,000 economists who publicly condemned the bill.
《斯穆特-霍利关税法》所导致的这些灾难性后果，并没有让那些公开谴责该法案的1000多名经济学家感到意外。
But this wouldn’t be the last time a world leader was shocked by a tariff's consequences.
但这绝不是世界领导人最后一次因关税的负面影响而感到震惊。
So, what exactly is a tariff?
那么，关税到底是什么呢？
A tariff is a tax an importer pays to bring foreign goods into a country.
关税是指进口商在将外国商品进口到一个国家时需要支付的税费。
For example, if they import $1,000 worth of goods at a 10% tariff rate,
例如，如果他们进口价值1000美元的货物，而关税率为10%，那么他们需要支付100美元的关税。
they'll pay $100 to the government in addition to $1,000 to the seller.
他们除了需要向卖家支付 1,000 美元外，还需向政府缴纳 100 美元。
Foreign exporters could respond to a tariff by reducing their product’s price to keep an importer’s business.
外国出口商可以通过降低产品价格来应对关税，从而维持与进口商的业务关系。
But if they don’t, importers bear this cost and then increase their prices so consumers will make up the difference.
但如果他们不这样做，进口商就必须承担这部分成本，随后他们会提高产品价格，以便消费者来弥补这一差价。
This may sound straightforward, but enacting a tariff kicks off a complicated economic chain reaction.
这听起来可能很简单，但实际上实施关税会引发一系列复杂的经济连锁反应。
So to keep things simple, let's look at some examples from just one country
为了简化问题，我们就来看一个国家的一些例子吧。
to explore some of the factors that make a tariff’s outcomes tricky to predict.
探讨那些使得关税的最终结果难以预测的因素。
First, tariffs can be applied to different countries at different rates.
首先，可以对不同的国家征收不同税率的关税。
For example, in 2024, America had a 6% tariff on all wool entering the country.
例如，在2024年，美国对所有进口到该国的羊毛产品征收了6%的关税。
However, if that wool came from Mexico or South Korea, it would be tariff-free due to trade agreements.
然而，如果这种羊毛来自墨西哥或韩国，根据贸易协议，它将免征关税。
Meanwhile, importers getting wool from Russia could face a hefty 55.5% tariff.
与此同时，从俄罗斯进口羊毛的商家可能需要支付高达55.5%的关税。
Policies like these might help domestic wool producers, or they might just encourage importers to buy from specific foreign producers.
这类政策可能会帮助国内的羊毛生产商，或者只是促使进口商从特定的外国生产商那里购买产品。
Things get even trickier when trying to predict how tariffs impact jobs.
当试图预测关税对就业的影响时，情况会变得更加复杂。
Sometimes the jobs they create come at a high cost.
有时候，他们创造出来的这些“工作”（或成果）需要付出高昂的代价。
In 2018, the US imposed a tariff on washing machines that created 1,800 jobs and raised roughly $82 million in government revenue.
2018年，美国对洗衣机征收了关税，这一措施创造了1800个就业机会，并为政府带来了约8200万美元的收入。
However, it also increased the average price of washing machines by $86, costing consumers roughly $1.5 billion.
然而，这也导致洗衣机的平均价格上涨了 86 美元，使消费者为此付出了大约 15 亿美元的成本。
This means consumers paid roughly $817,000 to create each of those jobs.
这意味着消费者为创造每一个就业机会付出了大约 81.7 万美元的费用。
In other cases, the jobs tariffs create come at the cost of existing jobs.
在其他情况下，这些新的就业政策（或就业规定）的实施会以牺牲现有就业机会为代价。
In 2002, the Bush administration imposed tariffs as high as 30% on imported steel.
2002年，布什政府对进口钢材征收了高达30%的关税。
Employment in US steel production had been decaying for decades,
美国钢铁行业的就业人数几十年来一直在持续减少。
so by making foreign steel more expensive, the tariff sought to create new jobs for US steel manufacturers.
通过提高进口钢材的价格，这项关税政策旨在为美国的钢铁制造商创造新的就业机会。
Initially, the policy did slow down job loss.
最初，这项政策确实减缓了失业率的上升速度。
But since US steel still cost more than pre-tariff foreign steel, domestic industries that used this material had to increase their prices.
但由于美国国产钢材的价格仍高于关税实施前的进口钢材价格，使用这种钢材的国内企业不得不提高产品售价。
This made their products less competitive internationally, where foreign manufacturers were still using cheap steel.
这使得他们的产品在国际市场上竞争力下降，因为外国制造商仍在使用价格低廉的钢材。
Within a year of enacting the tariff, the US lost far more jobs in steel-related industries than they gained in steel-producing industries.
在该关税政策实施后的短短一年内，美国在钢铁相关行业的就业岗位流失数量远远超过了在钢铁生产行业新增的就业岗位数量。
Clearly, how other countries respond to tariffs is another big part of the ripple effect these policies have.
显然，其他国家对关税的反应也是这些政策所产生的连锁效应的重要组成部分。
One clear example comes from 2018, when the US attempted to address its trade deficit with China by taxing Chinese goods.
一个明显的例子发生在2018年：当时美国试图通过对中国商品征税来缓解其与中国的贸易逆差。
While these tariffs protected domestic businesses and raised government revenue, they also set off a trade war.
虽然这些关税保护了国内企业并增加了政府的收入，但同时也引发了一场贸易战。
China retaliated by raising tariffs on US exporters, including farmers relying on Chinese markets for soybean sales.
作为报复，中国提高了对美国出口商的关税，其中包括那些依赖中国市场销售大豆的农民。
In the end, this led to higher prices for US consumers and a slight drop in America's GDP.
最终，这导致了美国消费者的价格上涨，以及美国国内生产总值（GDP）的轻微下降。