Anyone remember their American History lesson about tarriffs? Here’s Wikipedia’s definition of an export tarrif:
A tariff is a tax placed on a specific good or set of goods exported from or imported to a country, creating an economic barrier to trade.
Usually the tactic is used when a country’s domestic output of the good is falling and imports from foreign competitors are rising, particularly if there exist strategic reasons for retaining a domestic production capability.
Congress should use this strategy and impose a stiff tax on any American Oil Companies exports of oil to other countries so they would be more inclined to sell all of their oil to domestic customers.
Here’s a recent article about this:
http://www.forbes.com/reuters/feeds/reuters/2008/07/03/2008-07-03T184028Z_01_N02435397_RTRIDST_0_USA-OIL-EXPORTS-ANALYSIS.html
According to the article,
A record 1.6 million barrels a day in U.S. refined petroleum products were exported during the first four months of this year, up 33 percent from 1.2 million barrels a day over the same period in 2007. Shipments this February topped 1.8 million barrels a day for the first time during any month, according to final numbers from the Energy Department.
So I say sock it to the oil companies if they dare to send American oil overseas. How about Congress?
Tags: oil crisis, oil prices
