A US tariff idea that makes sense

THERE is unfortunately absolutely nothing good to say about the announcements US President Donald Trump made during his recent “Liberation Day” event in the White House Rose Garden. Try as one might to “sane-wash” Trump’s economic policies, there is simply no coherent rationale for his supposedly “reciprocal” trade tariffs.

Kim Clausing, Eric M. Zolt chair in tax law and policy at the UCLA School of Law, sums it up perfectly: “The largest tax increase in more than 50 years will burden US consumers, generating thousands of dollars in tax increases for the median household.”

Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute is similarly spot on, noting that “(these new tariffs) will decrease, not increase, manufacturing employment. They will reduce the competitiveness of manufacturing companies”.