On the Wisdom of Tariffs

As ITIF President Rob Atkinson told National Review, “The problems with the Trump metal tariffs are numerous, but perhaps the most important is that rather than use tariffs as a weapon to force China to roll back its damaging innovation mercantilist policies, an effort for which we will need all the help we can get from our allies, the tariffs are applied indiscriminately against friend and foe, free trader and mercantilist. This alienates potential allies in the broader China effort as well as invites tit-for-tat retaliation, which the Europeans have already said they would put in place.”