Trump tariffs: It’s one of Trump’s most controversial promises. This is how he might carry it out.
SlateThis article was originally featured in Foreign Policy, the magazine of global politics and ideas. But tariffs are also touted by Trump’s trade sherpas, such as former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, as a way to force manufacturing back to the United States by discouraging pricier imports. If tariffs are just a threatened big stick to get better trade terms for U.S. goods, then there won’t be tariff revenue to offset tax cuts, nor the spur to domestic manufacturing. It’s possible.” But the real break-the-glass moment for Trump’s tariff plans would hark back to the last big foray by Congress into throttling trade as a way to pacify restless voters, the infamous 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, whose most frightening provisions remain on the books. A desire to avoid the kind of punishment China doled out to U.S. agricultural exports in Trump’s first term might encourage some GOP senators to reclaim some trade authority.