Kevin Duffy on export subsidies

Exports subsidies are wealth transfers from the exporting country's taxpayers to the importing country's consumers.  The importing countries should welcome and encourage them. Instead of complaining, send thank you notes.

~ Kevin Duffy, Twitter/X post, April 21, 2025

Murray Rothbard on how foreign aid subsidizes exports

Another crucial feature of post-World War II establishment trade policy in the name of "free trade" is to push heavy subsidies of exports.  A favorite method of subsidy has been the much beloved system of foreign aid, which, under the cover of "reconstructing Europe," "stopping Communism," or "spreading democracy," is a racket by which the American taxpayers are forced to subsidize American export firms and industries as well as foreign governments who go along with this system.  Nafta represents a continuation of this system by enlisting the U.S. government and American taxpayers in this cause.

~ Murray Rothbard, "The Nafta Myth"

(Article appeared in Making Economic Sense, p. 308.)