Tariffs are everywhere. Countries are adding them, removing them, and arguing about them. But what are tariffs and how do they affect us? In this English lesson, you're going to learn the key vocabulary all about tariffs, and also learn about them too, so that the next time you turn on the news and the topic is on the subject, you'll be able to understand and you'll be able to use them in conversation. Let's start by talking about what tariffs are and key phrases to learn right from the start.
So a tariff is a tax placed on goods imported from another country. So some key vocabulary here are imports and exports and taxes. I'll leave a glossary in the description so you can learn these. But let's start with a simple example. Imagine the US by steel from China, but the US government adds a twenty five percent tariff. That means Chinese steel becomes twenty five percent more expensive
unless the Chinese steel companies reduce their prices. We'll talk about the reasons that countries are adding tariffs later, but first here are some more examples. If the US has tariffs on European cheese, this means that the imported cheese costs more, so people in the US might make different choices. And if there are tariffs on smartphones, then these imported
phones become more expensive than local phones. European countries have tariffs too, so there are tariffs or there were tariffs on American made cars, meaning that cars bought in the EU from America were more expensive than cars assembled or cars made in Europe. Often when we're talking about this, we're going to use the passive voice, Okay, so we can use the passive voice to explain this a little
bit more. For example, tariffs are added to imported goods, So we can use this to make tariffs the focus and say tariffs are added to imported goods. Another one is taxes are collected by the government. Taxes are collected by the government, And another example is prices are increased to protect local businesses. So that is the simple explanation of what tariffs are. It's basically a tax on imports to make them more expensive. But why do governments want
to use tariffs? At the moment, a lot of tariffs being added are comeing from the United States, and at the moment as well, the United States is trying to make trade deals with other countries, and a lot of this seems to be political, but there are other reasons why countries add tariffs. The first reason, and this is not just related to the US but just in general. The first reason is to protect local jobs, So to
protect local jobs and local industries. And when we're talking about this, we often use modal verbs for possibility of something happening. So instead of just saying it happens, like tariffs protect local jobs, you can use the word can, or might or could, So you might want to use these types of modal verbs instead by saying tariffs can protect local jobs. Tariffs might protect local jobs. But the idea is that, let's say imported clothes from Asia are
cheaper than clothes made in the UK. British factories won't do as well because people tend to buy clothes based on price, so if they are cheaper coming from Asia, then people will just choose those clothes instead those tea, shir and genes, et cetera. But let's say the UK government adds a tariff which means that these now are more expensive from Asia, clothes in the UK or made in the UK remain competitive or will become competitive, which will do two things. Firstly, prices go up, so because
there are no more cheaper clothes, prices will increase. However, there will be more jobs created and the British factories and British companies will do better. So the idea is that it's going to protect local jobs. The second reason is to raise government money to bring in more tax revenue. Now there is a big debate about where this money comes from, and from what I know, it mainly comes
from the consumer. So the consumer will end up paying more for the imported goods, but the government sees this as revenue and it's like a tax on the goods. And then at the moment, it seems to me like the biggest reason governments are talking and introducing tariffs at the moment is for political reasons, and this can sometimes be called a trade war. So countries use tariffs to
pressure other countries. And we've seen this a lot over the past six months, where the US has introduced tariffs and then they have got into negotiations with other countries. But we've also seen other countries respond by introducing their own tariffs on the US too. So a great phrase for you to learn is tariffs can protect jobs, but
they also make goods more expensive. Now, let's talk about how tariffs affect everyday people, and we talked about it a little bit in the last section, but the main idea is that these tariffs aren't just about governments. They also affect consumers too. Now, in economics, people talk about consumers is just people who buy things, so it's in context. But an example is, let's say there's a temper se
tariff on all electronics coming into the country. This means if you want to buy a new laptop, is going to cost one hundred dollars more if the laptop was one thousand dollars. If there are tariffs on't imported fruit, then oranges and bananas are going to cost more in
the supermarket. Now, there's a business reaction here too, from businesses who have consumers in a specific country but their factory is abroad because a big part of doing these tariffs, or at least that's what they're saying, is to move more factories back to the US. So if the US has a tariff and it's really high, then the company will say we will make these products now in the US to avoid tariffs. So for example, a car company might build a plant a factory in the US to
avoid the tariffs so that their car becomes more competitive. However, there's an important thing to know here as well, which is called the supply chain. Now, the supply chain just means where the parts of the car, for example, are made. Another example is a phone might use screens from South Korea a chip from another country, but it is assembled
in China. So this brings in complexity to tariffs, and this is one of the reasons why certain people think they're not a great idea when it comes to trade. So the supply chain is simply just talking about whether different parts of a product are created and how they all come together to be assembled. Let's now talk about some vocabulary and expressions about trade, because this is going to really help you understand the topic more in terms of learning the right words and phrases for English and
also help you talk about this topic. Now. The first one is called free trade. Free trade. Now, free trade is where countries trade with no tariffs or restrictions, and a good example of this is the EU. So there are various countries in the EU and this is a free trade area, so there are no tariffs or restrictions from countries like Spain, Germany, and France. Another useful expression here is to retaliate retaliate, and to retaliate means to
respond with an action. So, for example, if one country raises tariffs, the other country often retaliates. We've seen this over the last few months where one country has raised tariffs and then the country has retaliated by raising tariffs on that country too. Another great phrase to know is trade deficit trade deficit. If a country has a trade deficit, this is when the country imports more than it exports, so it brings more goods into the country than it
sells to the other countries. A great example of this is the US and a lot of other countries have a large trade deficit with China, and this is because China has become the factory center of the world. And now what we're going to talk about is some conditional sentences because this is perfect for tariffs, as we're talking about possibilities and also real future possibilities. For example, if tariffs go up, prices will go up. If tariffs go up, prices will go up. So this is saying that the
price is dependent on the tariff. If tariffs go up on imported cars, consumers will pay more. If tariffs go up on imported cars, consumers will pay more. And we can also use might in a conditional sentence to talk about a possibility. An example might be if countries keep raising tariffs, it might start a trade war. If countries keep raising tariffs, it might start to trade war. So this is saying that this is a possibility for the future, and we can use might here to help us state that.
We can also use the second conditional here too. For example, if tariffs were lower, consumers would save money. If tariffs were lower, consumers would save money. This is a hypothetical and non real example. And then let's look at some idioms now related to this topic. So the first one is pick up the tab. Pick up the tab, which means to pay for something, often when it's expensive. So for example, shoppers are the ones who pick up the tab when tariffs are raised, So shoppers are the ones
who pick up the tab. They are the ones who pay for something. You'll also hear the term hit the wallet, hit the wallet, and you'll often hear political commentators use this one. For example, tariffs have hit people's wallets hard this year. Tariffs have hit people's whilets hard this year. This means to affect someone in a negative way in terms of price. Another one using my name is jack up the prices to jack up the prices, and this
means to raise prices suddenly and sharply. For example, companies had to jack up the prices after tariffs were introduced. Companies had to jack up the prices after tariffs were introduced, so they had to raise prices suddenly and sharply. And another one is tighten your belt to tighten your belt, which means to spend less money because things are more expensive. For example, people are tightening their belts because of higher grocery costs. People are tightening their belts because of higher
grocery costs. A topic that is similar to tariffs is inflation. If you'd like me to make a lesson on inflation, let me know in the comments. And what to do now is to check the description and look at all of the phrases we've used in this English lesson, and then watch another lesson, which if you're on YouTube, is on your screen. If you're on Apple or Spotify, then check the description for that 'll just go back and
listen to more podcasts. Thanks for listening and watching, and speech you soon Bye for now.