Optimal Tariffs When Labor Income Taxes Are Distortionary

A classic result in trade theory is that it is socially optimal to set the tariff on a good equal to the inverse of the elasticity of its foreign supply. However, this result is based on the assumption that the government can use lump-sum taxes. The paper considers a simple open representative agent economy and characterizes second-best tariffs when the government's only non-tariff source of revenue is linear labor income taxation. If public spending needs are sufficiently large, and import demand is more (less) income-elastic than non-import demand, then the second-best tariff is lower (higher) than the standard optimal tariff.