What do you think about them? I don't like any taxes but you couldn't be arrested for failure to pay export taxes since they'd be collected by the govt at the borders.
One problem (other than the fact that they're taxes) is that they would encourage more consumption of domestic goods than a totally free society would. In spite of the aforementioned, I have to say that a fee collected at the borders to export would be the least harmful tax. A tax to export raw materials helps domestic manufacturers and domestic consumers out. A tax to export anything helps domestic consumers without necessarily harming domestic manufacturers... the domestic manufacturers would not necessarily be hurt because they'd have cheaper raw materials and because they would be guaranteed that they could sell their goods domestically.
Taxes on certain imports are never any good, because they can wind up hurting domestic manufacturers of intermediate goods. For example, a steel tariff imposed by the US govt would hurt Americans who manufactured cars unless there was an equivalent tax on imported cars to protect American workers between both of those sectors... if there were import taxes on both, then the negative effects of protectionism wind up cancelling any benefits there would might be. Another govt would then retaliate with their own protectionism, so then both govts' subjects would just wind up paying above market prices for items... while any govts not taxing imports would be paying below market prices as the prices paid by them would be distorted by the govts that were protectionist.
As for the WTO, it can wind up being used to help mercantilism because it likes governments that are dumped on to retaliate against market practices the WTO believes to be "unfair". The more decentralized trade decisions are, the better the market balance of trade will be. A global organization with a monopoly on force will not free up trade. Setting a good example is the way to maximize freedom of trade, not to use arbitrary force through a treaty that can only be enforced by pitting one part of the Earth's population against another.
One problem (other than the fact that they're taxes) is that they would encourage more consumption of domestic goods than a totally free society would. In spite of the aforementioned, I have to say that a fee collected at the borders to export would be the least harmful tax. A tax to export raw materials helps domestic manufacturers and domestic consumers out. A tax to export anything helps domestic consumers without necessarily harming domestic manufacturers... the domestic manufacturers would not necessarily be hurt because they'd have cheaper raw materials and because they would be guaranteed that they could sell their goods domestically.
Taxes on certain imports are never any good, because they can wind up hurting domestic manufacturers of intermediate goods. For example, a steel tariff imposed by the US govt would hurt Americans who manufactured cars unless there was an equivalent tax on imported cars to protect American workers between both of those sectors... if there were import taxes on both, then the negative effects of protectionism wind up cancelling any benefits there would might be. Another govt would then retaliate with their own protectionism, so then both govts' subjects would just wind up paying above market prices for items... while any govts not taxing imports would be paying below market prices as the prices paid by them would be distorted by the govts that were protectionist.
As for the WTO, it can wind up being used to help mercantilism because it likes governments that are dumped on to retaliate against market practices the WTO believes to be "unfair". The more decentralized trade decisions are, the better the market balance of trade will be. A global organization with a monopoly on force will not free up trade. Setting a good example is the way to maximize freedom of trade, not to use arbitrary force through a treaty that can only be enforced by pitting one part of the Earth's population against another.
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