The Law Trials #2: Tariffs
Afrofuturist Counter-Tariff Policy: The Imagination Trade Accord (ITA)
Principle: "Liberation cannot be bought with fear-based economics, but imagined through equitable exchanges that heal histories and seed futures."
🌍 1. Reciprocity, not Retaliation
Rather than adopting a blanket retaliatory tariff structure, the ITA promotes reciprocal imagination: encouraging countries to co-develop policy innovations that address economic imbalance through mutual benefit, not economic aggression.
✨ 2. Cultural Equity Tariff Zones
Instead of taxing material goods, this policy institutes Cultural Equity Zones (CEZs) — economic areas where goods are traded based on cultural labor, historical extraction, and creativity contributions.
Example: Tech hardware from countries sourcing rare earths in Africa without reinvesting into local digital economies would pay cultural equity tariffs unless they form Digital Reparations Partnerships to develop Afrocentric AI and infrastructure.
📡 3. Afrofuturist AI Economic Index
We propose the creation of an Afrofuturist AI-driven economic index that evaluates trade policies not by GDP or deficit measures but by:
Planetary equity
Black futures literacy
Creative sovereignty
Ecological well-being
This challenges the extractive logic of economic growth metrics and centers equity as core to national success.
🚀 4. Trade as Collective Worldbuilding
Inspired by techno’s emergence in post-industrial Detroit (as highlighted in Post-Soul Futurama), trade policy should recognize cities as hubs of cultural technology — not just manufacturing.
Every import/export will be reviewed not just for cost, but for how it participates in the collective narrative construction of a future for all — especially Black, Indigenous, and global South communities historically excluded from "innovation economies."​
⚖️ 5. End the Weaponization of Scarcity
Blanket tariffs create artificial scarcity to discipline the domestic economy. Instead, this policy asserts the Afrofuturist Law of Abundance:
“Nothing about us without us.” Any economic scarcity imposed by AI, supply chains, or tariffs must be transparently co-governed by those most impacted.
Accessible education, community data sovereignty, and the right to imagine alternatives are economic rights.
Summary
This counter-policy refuses to play the zero-sum game of nationalist trade wars. Instead, it reimagines trade as reparative storytelling, cultural equity exchange, and planetary stewardship — rooted in Black speculative traditions and future-forward design.
Reaction
Building on reflections from Afrofuturists, this approach to trade and policy reflects how black speculative practice can overcome capitalism's extractive assumption. The “Imagination Trade Accord” (ITA) development reflects community-oriented perspectives that uplift everyone. Historically, marginalized groups have employed these policies out of necessity at the local level. The political imagination exists to pursue it at the global level. It is ultimately a question of collective activism driven by our collective needs.
