beggar-thy-neighbor policy

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I can only win if you lose.

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In international trade, a beggar-thy-neighbor economic policy is one that benefits the country that implements it while harming that country’s neighbors or trading partners. It usually takes the form of some kind of trade barrier imposed on the neighbors or trading partners or a devaluation of the domestic currency to gain competitive advantage over them.

The idea behind beggar-thy-neighbor policies is the protection of the domestic economy by reducing imports and increasing exports. That is usually achieved by encouraging consumption of domestic goods over imports using protectionist policies—such as import tariffs or quotas—to limit the amount of imports. Often the domestic currency is devalued as well, which makes domestic goods cheaper for foreigners to buy, resulting in more exports of domestic goods abroad.

Although the precise origin of the term beggar-thy-neighbor is not known, Adam Smith, the Scottish philosopher who is also considered to be the founder of modern economics, made a reference to it when he critiqued mercantilism, the dominant economic system in Europe from the 16th to the 18th century. According to Smith, the doctrine of mercantilism taught that nations should beggar all their neighbors to maximize economic gains. Smith believed that long-term gains from free trade would far outweigh the short-term benefits that might be derived from the protectionist policies advocated by the mercantilists.

Economists after Smith confirmed his belief through research that showed that adopting such policies could trigger trade wars, a situation in which countries repeatedly retaliate against each other by raising tariffs on each other’s products. Trade wars tend to push the countries involved in them toward autarky, a system of economic self-sufficiency and limited trade, which could be detrimental for economic growth.

Beggar-thy-neighbor policies have been used by many countries throughout history. They were widely popular during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when countries desperately tried to prevent their domestic industries from failing. After World War II, Japan followed a model of economic development that relied heavily on protecting its domestic industries from foreign competition until they were mature enough to compete with foreign firms. Post-Cold War China followed a similar set of policies to limit foreign influence on domestic producers.

After the 1990s, with the advent of economic globalization, beggar-thy-neighbor policies lost much of their appeal. Although some countries still occasionally use such policies in an effort to achieve economic gains at the expense of their neighbors, most of those gains are wiped out when their neighbors retaliate by adopting similar policies. The concept made a resurgence in 2025 when the United States instituted tariffs against many of its trading partners, with a special emphasis on China, which has had a wide trade imbalance with the U.S.