As an SME trader, your entire business model is predicated on importing a foreign product to profit from selling it to local consumers. If you’re upset, that was your strategic blunder—and by no means does that make you a patriot. You’re merely an opportunist.
If you attempted the same strategy in any other country, it would be dramatically more difficult due to import tariffs, VAT, currency complexities, lobbying at customs, and navigating various vendors and service providers.
What we have now is actually a fair game for both importers and exporters. It’s not about being a protectionist—it’s about responding to how the other side is trading with you.
The “pain” that importers are now expressing is the same pain American exporters have been dealing with for years. People cherry-pick anecdotes to push a narrative.
You need to focus on the greater good. That’s what makes America great. Those who are complaining are chasing a utopia that doesn’t exist.
Policymakers took the bait of cheap goods—and there was a cost for it. Now, we need adults in the room to readjust.
The greater good is to insource, not outsource—and to trade only with those of like minds.
Rules of the game: Local products are cheaper, and foreign products are more expensive.
Remember,
Your supposed trading partners are not ‘good’ actors in the game. They rather take their trade surplus and buy weapons and defense to extend their autocratic rule than to simply invest in their own infrastructure.
Why?