Name: Warren Buffett knocks tariffs and protectionism: 'Trade should not be a weapon'
Uploaded: 2025-05-12T11:25:56.000Z
Duration: 5 min 23 s
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This first question comes from Bill Mitchell.

Past simple

I received more questions about this than any other question.

To-infinitive

He writes, Warren, in a 2003 Fortune article, you argued for imports of certificates to limit trade deficits and said these import certificates basically amounted to a tariff.

But recently, you called tariffs an act of economic war.

Has your view on trade barriers changed, or do you see import certificates as somehow distinct from tariffs?

Yeah, the import certificates were distinct, but their goal was to balance imports against exports.

And so that the trade deficit would not grow in an enormous way.

And it had various other provisions in it to help third world countries at that time, as they were called, to perhaps catch up a little bit.

And they had a variety of aspects to them.

But basically, they were designed to balance trade.

And I think you can make some very good arguments for the fact that balanced trade is good for the world.

And the more balanced trade there is, the better.

It will continue to be better for cocoa to be raised in Ghana, and coffee in Colombia, and a few things.

And over time, the American industry has gone from being an agricultural country.

This was nothing but an ag country, I mean, virtually.

And we have become a very industrial country.

And we did not want to make that a situation, in my view, where we ran greater and greater deficits, building up greater and greater debts against the country.

So I designed this import certificate thing, which Charlie thought was a little Rube, too much like Rube Goldberg.

But it's certainly a lot better than anything, I think, than we're talking about now.

And there's no question that trade can be an act of war.

Just the attitudes it's brought out in the United States.

I mean, we should be looking to trade with the rest of the world.

I mean, we were good at producing tobacco and cotton 250 years ago.

And we want a prosperous world with eight countries with nuclear weapons, including a few that are, what I would call, quite unstable.

I do not think it's a great idea to try and design a world where a few countries say, ha, ha, ha, we've won, and other countries are envious.

So my import certificate idea, which went no place, I think we've got extra copies.

But anybody, if you'd like, and write the office, I think we could probably send you a copy of it.

But the main thing to do is not use trade should not be a weapon.

I mean, we have become an incredibly important country starting from nothing. 250 years ago, there's nothing been anything like it.

And it's a big mistake, in my view, when you have 7 and 1 half billion people that don't like you very well.

And you've got 300 million that are crawling in some way about how well they've done.

But I do think that the more prosperous the rest of the world becomes, it won't be at our expense.

The more prosperous we'll become, and the safer we'll feel, and your children will feel someday.

So that's.  But don't expect my import certificate idea to go down there with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations or anything.