Comment: I propose a new tax to reduce the size and the impact of the large and growing trade imbalance. The concept is as follows. Every quarter the government should calculate the trade deficit as a percentage of total cost of imported goods. A tax should then be levied against the importers equal to the percentage imbalance. The tax should be the same for all imported goods, so it would not discriminate against any country or class of imports. The benefits are two-fold. This tax would tend to make all imports more and more expensive as the trade imbalance grows larger and larger. The revenues could be applied to the federal government debt. If we do not do something about the trade imbalance, we are going to bankrupt our nation and go the route of the Soviet Union within the next two decades. Robert P. Armstrong |