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In response, the government reduced tariffs on many consumer goods, such as ice skates and baby clothing. This made for a good talking point: The Tories boasted the changes would save consumers $79 million per year. But at the same time, the government quietly took 72 countries — including China, India and Brazil — off the list of states enjoying privileged access to the Canadian marketplace under what’s called the General Preferential Tariff — a move that will cost Canadians many times what they will save from the other tariff reductions.

The government is counting on consumers not noticing a slight increase in the cost of some products, even if taken as a whole they amount to a third of a billion dollars. A spokesperson for Finance Minister Joe Oliver argues that since the countries taken off the list are “booming and no longer underdeveloped,” continuing to allow them preferential access to the Canadian economy would be “not fair to Canadian companies.”

But whoever said trade was supposed to be fair? If there’s one thing virtually all economists agree on, it’s that trade restrictions do as much harm or more to the country that imposes them as they do to their intended target. Not only do higher tariffs penalize Canadian consumers — and poorer consumers most of all — they also protect less efficient domestic industries, making our economy less productive overall. Perhaps the biggest losers: more efficient industries, deprived both of the consumer income tariffs depress and of the capital and labour they might otherwise have attracted from their protected counterparts. What’s “fair” about that?

The Harper Tories talk a good game on the consumer interest. But their credibility as defenders of consumers and champions of free trade will suffer so long as they implement backward measures such as this.