World Market and Tariff confusion

[Mozart41st]

Alright, having read this board for a while I think I have established a few things.
1. Pops do not buy things directly from either you or your stockpile, they just buy it from the world market.
2. Tariffs place a tax on the things that pops buy on the world market.

So taking all of this into account, does it not seem that tariffs don't really work as they did in history? IIRC, the purpose of tariffs was to place a tax on imported goods (steel, etc) to protect the "homegrown" companies from foreign competition. Since this is not actually how it takes place in the game, why would any of your pops support "protectionism" since, functionally, it is nothing more than just another tax and not really "protecting" anything.

Am I not taking into account something here, or perhaps completely misunderstanding something? Thanks in advance.

 

[Mozart41st]

Anyone out there who can shed some light on this subject?

 

[State Machine]

POPs buy local production before they buy from the world market, so tariffs only effect non-local production. That is, tariffs work the way you would want them too.

OTOH, it is not proven that if there are trade subsidies (negative tariffs - I forget the game terminology) that the POPs buy the cheaper foreign goods first before buying local (non-subsidised production).

 

[Mozart41st]

Ah, interesting. That certainly adds a new dimension to things. Thank you.