Why South Dakota doesn’t need to close the ‘banana gap,’ and other lessons about trade and tariffs

Why South Dakota doesn’t need to close the ‘banana gap,’ and other lessons about trade and tariffs

A stack of ripe bananas arranged in the market for sale. (Kryssia Campos, via Getty Images)Thanks to President Trump and his on-again/off-again tariffs, I’ve been thinking about wheat, oranges and bananas. Almost 50 years ago, I took my only economics class at Wichita State University over a summer session. One of the ongoing examples of economics was Kansas’ production of wheat and Florida’s production of oranges. While it seems obvious why Kan…