R. Bruce Anderson
- The Trump administration's imposition of widespread tariffs has caused confusion and negative economic consequences.
- While tariffs can be a useful tool in trade and foreign policy, the administration's approach has been disorganized and poorly targeted.
- Tariffs can protect domestic industries and influence international relations, but require strategic implementation for optimal effectiveness.
"Whose throat do I get to choke if this goes wrong?"– Thom Tillis, Republican senator from North Carolina, up for reelection in 2026.
With the imposition of almost-universal surcharges of all imports, the tariff wars were – and still are – on. Across the world and across the capitol.
From Wall Street to Lime Street, confusion set in and along with it, pain from all sectors, including the Republicans allied with the administration.The biggest detractor “inside the tent” has been, oddly, Elon Musk.Musk, according to NBC News, referred to Peter Navarro (President Trump’s premier trade strategist) as “ … a "moron" and "dumber than a sack of bricks."Testy. And this comes from Republicans – you can imagine what Democrats were saying.
Despite last week’s rapid and disorganized retreat by the administration, the battle goes on.
Tariffs, per se, are value-neutral – their value as a strategy depends on how they are used.The approach used on “liberation day” was a massive fail, but let’s not be quick to write off tariffs, generally, as a possible economic tactic.
Tariffs are essentially a tax.They are paid by the company that is importing the goods, not the nation, or even the company, selling the goods to the United States.This means that the importer will likely pass the cost of paying the tariff on to the consumer.Which is us.
Taxes are never very popular, of course, particularly among those who have to pay them.But there are some goods we already produce, or could produce, and somewhere in all of this, an argument could be made for applying them.
Some “tariffing” (my new verb for the week) is probably justified: when we’re swamped by cheap vegetables and fruit from foreign lands, for example.The imported produce is cheap due to near-slave labor costs coupled with the use of raw pesticides and chemical sprays that would be illegal here.Raising a tariff to protect US producers is simply smart. And refusing to lift it until and unless foreign competitors play safe and fair, is also smart.
The same can be said of the insane competition our shrimpers in Florida and Texas contend with from tasteless, frozen, farm-raised shrimp that flood the market. Raising a tariff to discourage Thai and Indonesian imports to protect U.S. shrimpers’ fresh catch livelihood is good business.
Tariffs can also be a good tool for foreign policy. Cutting off Iran’s oil exportation, as this administration is trying to do by threatening a tariff on nations that import it, is a structured approach to strangling their economy.Iran is an existential threat to the peace of the Middle East, and cutting off their lifeline might push them to the negotiating table.
Where some nations have been hammering us for years ― or are frankly a threat to our security ― hitting them with a stiff trade tariff across all goods makes sense.It’s better than going to war, it cramps them up where it hurts, and, frankly, why should we be pouring billions of American dollars into the Chinese war machine when we can buy the same goods somewhere else or, as the administration would like to have it, try to make them here?
There are elements of Trump’s tariff approach that could make sense, when it directly benefits us in trade or security, but a unilateral “blunderbuss” of undifferentiated tariffs hit our allies as hard as it hits our enemies ― and some really bad actors, like Russia, were wholly exempt.
What this set of policies needs is refinement, strategy and smart application – items this administration is struggling with on a visceral level.Coherency has never been a fine point for these guys, but they can learn.
Tariffs are a blunt instrument, but if Mr. Trump learns to apply them with some finesse, they can be a godsend.
R. Bruce Anderson is theDr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay, Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civicsand Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Florida Southern College in Lakeland.He is also a columnist for The Ledgerand political consultant and on-air commentator for WLKF Radio.
