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Brexiters economists such as Patrick Minford keep repeating the nonsense that tariffs will benefit us after Brexit because other countries will have to pay more in tariffs than we will (because of our trade deficit). Ignores the basic fact that if prices go up, demand goes down.
Their assertion only holds true if purchasing behaviour didn't change at all, which would only be the case if foreign producers swallowed the tariffs so that the UK price of their goods didn't change. Anyone who's been in business for more than an hour will see the absurdity.
It's like they found a charred copy of the "Ladybird Book of Economics" in the smoking ruins of a fire, and learnt everything they know from the remains of p6, p9 and p22.
Because they certainly don't understand gravity as it applies to trade either, ie the fact that trade decreases as distance increases.
