ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Tariff in United States history

Hey kiddo! Have you ever played a game with your friends where you trade items like toys or cards? Sometimes, you might think that your toy is more valuable than your friend's toy, so you might ask for an extra toy in exchange. This is kind of like what a tariff is, but on a much bigger scale.

A tariff is like a tax that the government puts on things that come from other countries. So, if we want to buy a toy from a country that's not the United States, the government might make us pay extra money for it. This extra money is kind of like the "extra toy" we were talking about earlier.

Now, why would the government do this? Well, one reason is to protect businesses that are in the United States. If we make it harder or more expensive for people to buy toys from other countries, then they might choose to buy toys that are made in the United States instead. This is helpful for businesses in the United States because it means more people are buying their products, which means they can make more money.

Another reason the government might put tariffs on things is to try to punish other countries for doing things that the United States doesn't like. For example, if another country is being mean to us or not treating us fairly, the United States might decide to put tariffs on things that come from that country as a way of saying "hey, we don't like what you're doing!"

Tariffs have been around in United States history for a really long time. In fact, one of the first things that the government did after the United States became a country was to start putting tariffs on things that came from other countries. They've been used for lots of different reasons over the years, and they're still used today.