Tantrums Masquerading as Strategy

The case for "reciprocal" tariffs does not convince

I’m in Civitas Outlook this morning, with an article about the idea of “reciprocal” tariffs. Who knows when these are supposed to start, which may happen this week or April 2. With this president, one can never really be sure when tariffs will start, stop, be applied, rescinded, delayed, extended, amplified… anything other than lowering, which, you know, whatever.

A couple of snippets:

Trade wars are not so much a fight but a self-defeating spiral of economic ignorance. They lead to higher prices for domestic consumers and producers, inhibit job growth in downstream industries, and lower overall well-being, particularly for low-income households. Tariffs, reciprocal or otherwise, are disastrous policies we need to excise from the American lexicon. Fortunately for us, there is a much easier and more applicable path toward achieving everything that the self-proclaimed “tariff man” wants to achieve and that better suits his proclivities.

And

Reciprocal tariffs aren’t just bad policy, they’re a tantrum masquerading as strategy. It’s time for the U.S. to put down the “trade weapons” and start looking to make handshakes.

You can read the whole thing here.