April 15, 2025
Time to End Tariff Alarmism
By William Levin
Contrary to the headlines, it is time to move on from tariffs.
Yes, the April 2 Liberation Day announcement was poorly handled. Yes, there is an unfitting dishonesty in painting trade deficits as an economic problem.
Hopefully, important lessons were learned here, most especially that taxing trade deficits is not the correct instrument to grow reciprocal trade. In addition, President Trump’s emergency power to set tariffs reaches only so far. For stable, long-term commitments, the optimal tariff regime is a job committed by the Constitution to Congress. No reason to swap first principles for expediency.
Now for the good news.
For those who like inside baseball, Peter Navarro is in way over his head. He wrongly favors permanent tariffs. In an unforgivable error, the April 2 tariffs were overstated by a factor of four due to misapplication of the underlying economic formula. He will be sidelined in favor of much sounder advisers, especially Treasury secretary Bessent, who has emerged as the best trade adviser.
For the rest of us, the key news is that economic growth may slow, but not nearly as much as initially feared. Not only are alarmists likely to be proven wrong about a 2025 recession, but look for overall U.S. GDP to hit 1.5–2.0% in 2025 and rise thereafter.
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/04/time_to_end_tariff_alarmism.html
