Warren Buffett rolls back his 2003 import certificates idea, calls it ‘gimmicky,’ yet better than current US tariffs

Omaha-based investment giant Berkshire Hathaway's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Warren Buffett, in the shareholders meeting hosted on Saturday, May 3, said that the import certificates, which he recommended in 2003, for a balanced trade as ‘gimmicky’ yet better than the current US trade policy of high tariffs. 

“It’s gimmicky, but it’s certainly a lot better than anything I think we’re talking about now,” said Warren Buffett. “And there’s no question that trade can be an act of war, and I think it’s led to bad things, just the attitude it’s brought out,” reported the news portal Fortune.

According to the news portal's report, Buffett, earlier in an opinion piece on the news portal, proposed that import certificates (IC's) are a method to keep a balance in trade instead of slapping tariffs for imports.

These certificates are generally credits which would be issued to an exporter “on the amount equal to the dollar value of their exports,” according to Buffett's opinion piece. This would enable the exporters to sell their certificates to either other exporters internationally or domestic importers, according to the news report. 

“To import $1 million of goods, for example, an importer would need IC's that were the byproduct of $1 million of exports,” said Buffett, as cited by the news portal. “The inevitable result: trade balance,” said the value investor.

Trade as a weapon?

In the shareholders' meeting hosted on Saturday, May 3, 2025, Warren Buffett criticised the current US trade policy stance and said that trade should not be used as a weapon against other world nations.

“Trade should not be a weapon,” said Warren Buffett in the meeting.

Buffett emphasised how the United States should focus more on trading with other nations and let other people do what they do better than the US, and vice versa.

“In the United States, we should be looking to trade with the rest of the world. We should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best,” he said at the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders' meeting.

However, even though he called that trade should not be used as a weapon, Buffett did not directly refer to Donald Trump's tariff policy, which imposes high tariffs against world nations exporting to the United States.