Customs Barrier

Imagine that you run a country.

It doesn’t have to be that big of a country. It doesn't even need to have to a navy. The only thing that your country needs to do is produce...something.

Let’s say you produce an incredibly large amount of corn at an average of $4.00 per bushel. However, a neighboring country is a bit more technologically advanced than you are. They have better fertilizer, better irrigation, and better soil moisture. Your country's fertilizer is crap (literally), your water is contaminated, and your dirt is dry as a bone.

The neighboring country can produce corn for $3.00 and ship it to your nation’s customers for 50 cents. Which means they can export corn to your country for $3.50 while your farmers can only bring their corn to market for $4.00.

Naturally, your customers want the cheaper corn that isn’t grown in crap. But you can’t let your farms fail. So what do you do to protect your country?

You throw up a customs barrier, making it impossible for the neighboring country to export corn to your nation at a price that would even come close to matching your farmers’ price.

Perhaps you put up an utterly irrational import tax along the lines of $1.50. That would make your neighbor's corn $1 higher than your domestic market. Your customers won’t be happy, but your farmers will work hard to re-elect you, because you looked out for them.

Human history has so many great examples of top-down government control over the agricultural system, eh?