Economic nationalists are people who favor the use of any and all means to maintain at least a partial degree of self-subsistence within a given country. To this end, an economic nationalist will generally support any move to make use of domestic production instead of imported goods and services to meet domestic consumption. In many ways, the idea of economic nationalism acts as both a balance to and an opponent of the concept of globalization, in which all nations are seen as economically interdependent.
One of the ways that an economic nationalist may seek to balance labor and capital formation with a country is to impose various tariffs on both imported and exported goods. The idea is to make imported goods less appealing to the general populace by driving up the purchase price. At the same time, imposing stiff tariffs on exported goods may be a means of limiting the amount of domestically produced goods from flowing out of the borders of the nation and being consumed by other countries. Instead, the goods and services remain in the country of origin and are perceived to yield a greater benefit to the citizens of the country.
An economic nationalist may also engage in the practice of purchasing only domestically produced goods and services. This means that foods imported from other countries are not purchased. Instead, local food sources such as farmers markets and local dairies may be utilized instead of supermarket chains that often import much of their produce and meat products. An economic nationalist may only purchase clothing that is made from cloth produced in the country of origin, as well as cut and assembled into wearable garments in factories that are operated within the country. Essentially, if there is any way to obtain the product domestically, the economic nationalist will choose that option over purchasing an imported product.
While the intent of an economic nationalist is to prevent a nation from becoming overly dependent on any other country for the basic necessities of life, many will make some exceptions. This is especially true when particular goods or services are not or cannot be produced with the borders of the nation. When this is the case, the economic nationalist will still go to great effort to purchase domestic goods at every opportunity, while still supporting economic restrictions that make it harder for imports to compete with goods that are produced domestically.
