"A tariff is a tax paid by consumers, and if there's one thing the past four years have taught us, it's that the public will not forgive a politician who presides over a period of rising prices, no matter what the cause. Luckily for the political fortunes of the world's leaders, there is a better way to respond to tariffs. Tit-for-tat tariffs are a 19th-century tactic, and we live in a 21st-century world"
"They could repeal their "anticircumvention" laws, which make it illegal-a felony, in many cases-to modify devices and services without permission from their manufacturers. Over the past two decades, the office of the US Trade Representative-which is responsible for developing and coordinating US international trade, commodity, and direct investment policy-has pressured most of the world into adopting these laws, hamstringing foreign startups that might compete with Apple (by providing a jailbreaking kit that installs a third-party app store)"
Tariffs act as taxes on consumers and rising prices politically punish leaders. Tit-for-tat tariffs are outdated; modern legal changes can undercut dominant US tech firms. Repealing anticircumvention laws would legalize modifying devices and services without manufacturer permission. Over two decades the US Trade Representative pushed many countries to adopt such laws, which criminalize modifications and handicap foreign startups. Those laws protect digital locks that let US companies extract hundreds of billions annually through app store control, tracking, file format locks, repair restrictions, and encrypted diagnostics. Repeal of these laws could lower costs globally and shift trade-war leverage away from those companies.
Read at WIRED
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