Hmmm.... I thought these tariffs weren't going to make a difference.
Could they actually restart or increase domestic steel production?
If so, is this a bad thing?
Why?
It is not a bad thing. And it is what the steel industry is going to have to do to keep this tariff, because the elites of the right and left think these tariffs are going to start a trade war. The steel industry needs to show tangible proof that support for domestic steel translates directly to working class jobs.
Trump should limit the impact of the tariffs by waiving them for countries participating in a free trade agreement, e.g., the NAFTA nations. There should be no artificial disruption of the steel industry on the North American continent; in the kind of crisis where the need for a domestic steel industry has national security implications, the US, Canada and Mexico need be effectively united. And yes, offering special dispensation to Canada and Mexico gives Trump leverage in the NAFTA re-negotiations.
These tariffs need not start a trade war, or at least not one that truly damages us. There is value to a diverse nation like ours keeping its manufacturing base or, more specifically, its industrial raw materials base, even as every economist of every stripe assures us that it is more "efficient" and more "consumer oriented" to let the less developed nations make all the steel.
We do not need to concede those who work with their hands to the economic dustbin. We can retrain them, but I rather they still be able to make steel. And to make cars. Quite frankly, if it is true as has been reported that our cars when shipped to Europe are tariffed at three times the rate we tariff theirs, they I say level the playing field, Mr. President.
I have no philosophical issue with tariffs; the Republic was founded with tariffs as its financial backbone. I believe in free markets and free trade, absolutely, but I also believe in the right of a sovereign nation to designate the size of the market. We don't have to trade freely with nations that have nothing in common with us in terms of wage rates and labor and environmental protections. And for those nations that do, like Europe, we can choose to trade freely with those who do the same, and who don't penalize our exports and don't allow the exploitation of our intellectual property.
And for those who do not, then by God tariff away.
