Tariffs and Trade Wars (not relevant for local economies)
All we hear these days from politicians are words on tariffs – taxes imposed by governments on imported goods, to protect domestic industry from foreign competition and to generate more government revenue.
But just like all the hoo-ha about sausage imports when England left the EU (if people eat sausages, they should be eating free-range ones from local farms), this is kind of the same.
Sir Keir Starmer is flying off around the world trying to get trade deals with China, Trump is throwing tariffs at anyone who doesn’t agree with him, and meanwhile people in all countries suffer, as food and other prices go up, as things become even more affordable.
That’s because these countries are not based on local economies. If we grew our own food (instead of importing 70% of apples sold in England), built our own eco-homes and even drove cars made here, tariffs would not affect us.
Governments talk of climate change (while our environment secretary flies six times around the world, to tell other people to reduce emissions (flying is one of the main causes), yet trade deals just means more emissions, from flying in goods from abroad, when we could create jobs to make our own.
Recently, the Prime Minister visited China, and boasted that he had agreed that people in the UK can now visit China visa-free. What a lot of nonsense:
- Most people don’t want to visit China, due to concerns on animal welfare and human rights.
- He should be back here, sorting out domestic issues like pubs going to the wall.
- He was there to create trade deals, to export/import goods, which will mean more emissions.
- Most people can’t afford to visit China (a ticket costs around £1000) when many people can’t afford basic grocery bills.
I chose to listen to the Labour Conference speech. To manage the jitters, I decided I would do it on my hands and knees in a field, weeding plants, the occasional discovery of a toad or ladybird to help make the experience manageable.
Localisation – rebuilding power and democracy in the hands of communities and away from the centre, that is the solution to the symptoms of globalisation. A turn away from the politicians, to a trust in the honesty, kindness and power of real people. Neil Kingsnorth
What Exactly is a Trade Tariff?
We keep hearing about Trump putting tariffs on anything that moves, but what are they? They are basically just taxes on imported goods (but we don’t need to import apples, we have plenty of them!)
It’s almost like a ‘cycle of retaliation’, so one tariff prompts another. The loser of course is the everyday person whose food prices go up. Especially if the big supermarkets have killed off all your local farmers’ markets and independent shops, so the only way to buy a local apple is to grow a tree or find a community orchard.
As an example, a small business buys a motor component for £100 from the USA, and Trump adds £10. Now that costs £110 to buy before shipping charges. And of course he passes the cost to the buyer of the machine.
This is not just about cars, but about machines that pump blood in NHS hospitals. So everyone loses. And government is more obsessed with keeping tariffs low for car factories, than investing money to create walkable communities, so people would need less cars in the first place. Lack of vision, that’s called.
Tariffs even hit ‘local things’. You may need a friendly plumber to unblock a drain because someone has flushed something they shouldn’t down it. But your ‘local plumber’ needs a van to reach you if your garden floods, and high tariffs will make his tyres cost more when they puncture. So those costs are passed to you, so he can pay his mortgage and feed his family.
A local community eaterie may sell local food (even pay-as-you-go) but it needs a fridge to chill food and an oven to cook food, and most are likely not made in England.
This has a knock-on effect. As when prices rise, people buy less. So the local independent shops that sell locally-grown cabbages get less income, and they sometimes close down. They then can’t pay business taxes (or even tax if they are unemployed) and this is less public money to fund walkable communities, the NHS etc.
Councils then get squeezed as they have no money, and right-wing politicians pop up and say ‘We will fix all your problems by stopping boats and stopping benefits for scroungers’, not realising that their American friends have caused a lot of the problems in the first place.
Local economies feel less impact
When towns that are quite resilient (local shops and currencies, community solar panels, credit unions etc) get hammered, they don’t get hammered quite as much. Because they have free or low-cost energy shared, they do indeed grow their own apples (often on streets for people to freely pick) and participate in things like timebanks, where people share skills and do jobs, without money being involved.
This is the ‘two fingers up’ approach to those who wish to rule and control us through big money globalisation. But in a peaceful and empowering way! Politicians and big business may tell us that we have to put up with ‘big oil prices and big food hikes’ due to blah-blah-blah’. But they can’t do anything if we say ‘well that’s fine, we’ll just live very simply, and buy less!’
Local Investing (Backing Your Neighbourhood)
Imagine if every pound you spent in your community made your local area stronger. That’s what community wealth building is all about. It means giving people a fairer shot by keeping money close to home, not in the pockets of big national chains. This approach helps support jobs, local businesses, and everyday people where you live.
Local investing is a key part of this movement. Writer Amy Cortese helped bring the idea to life through her work on locavesting. She showed that when neighbours back small businesses or co-operatives in their own towns, everyone benefits.
Think of the café down the road funded by local supporters or a community solar project built by friends pooling resources. These real stories prove that ordinary people can help shape the places they care about.
If you want to see stronger shops, greener parks, and fuller town centres around you, community wealth building and local investing can make a real difference. That’s a local economy.
At the moment, the entire global economy seems to be built on the model of digging things up from one hole in the ground on one side of the earth, transporting them around the world, using them for a few days, and sticking them in a hole in the ground on the other side of the world. George Monbiot
Economist John Kenneth Galbraith says ‘trickledown economics’ (cutting taxes for rich people to give jobs to the ‘little people’) just means the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. He says ”If you feed enough oats to the horse, some will pass through to feed the sparrows’.
