Tariffs aren’t dead

Originally published by Washington Examiner.

For decades, a bipartisan globalist consensus has treated free trade as an unquestioned good — an article of faith rather than a policy choice. In theory, free trade promises efficiency, lower prices, and shared prosperity. But in practice, the global trading system has never been truly free, and American workers have too often paid the price for pretending otherwise.

Tariffs aren’t dead. They remain one of the most effective tools available to policymakers to advance three core national interests: economic security, revenue generation, and negotiating leverage. Used strategically, tariffs are not a rejection of markets — they are a recognition that markets must be structured to serve the national interest.

The standard argument for free trade assumes a level playing field. But that assumption collapses under scrutiny. Many of our trading partners have denied American exporters access to their markets by imposing high tariffs and quotas, mandating health and environmental regulations not based on science, and ignoring intellectual property protections, all the while subsidizing their production to further give their goods an artificial advantage. In exchange, the same countries benefited from relatively open access to U.S. markets.

That’s not free trade.

To read the full article, click here.