Former President Donald Trump was lambasted for the tariffs imposed when he was in office and for proposing more of the same. But then President Joe Biden slapped new tariffs on steel from China routed through Mexico, an act met mostly with silence. Are both men wrong?

Are tariffs sound policy or a terrible idea? It is an age-old question of economic policy. The simple answer: yes. But it is an age-old question with an answer that changes over time due to changing circumstances, which is why this lifelong free trader now insists on an exception. (RELATED: J.D. FOSTER: Trump’s Tariffs Would Not Reignite Inflation)

In theory, tariffs are a terrible idea, but this conclusion rests on three propositions. First, nations must abstain from giving domestic producers artificial advantages. Tariff-free trade requires governments to let the chips fall where they may, with the most competitive firms winning out. Such an environment provides the greatest advances in prosperity to the most people. Welcome to the conservative economist’s heaven.

But we know nations cheat — sometimes inadvertently, sometimes intentionally. The second founding proposition requires........

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