[hoi]

So if company Y created a genetic variant of a vegetable in Country X, and if this vegetable is shipped and sold in supermarkets around the world, the profit made from sales of that vegetable should only be charged in Country X, and not in the country that made the sale to the end consumer?

[derriz]

To be straight here, yes that's pretty much how it's supposed to work. There would have to be sales, logistics and back office functions in the consuming country and those operations would be taxable. There would like to also be general sales tax in the consuming country but these would apply to all sales, not just the sales of "foreign" goods.

Countries have tried heavily taxing revenues of "foreign" imports - they're called tarrifs or import duties - and generally the result has been to make everyone poorer.

But it's a populist meme at the moment - both on the left and on the right - Trump's misguided/dangerous trade policies for example - that international trade is impoverishing or a zero-sum game.