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Home – Economy News – Tariffs Alone Won’t Reshore Steel and Aluminum, but Will Hurt Manufacturing

Tariffs Alone Won’t Reshore Steel and Aluminum, but Will Hurt Manufacturing

Tariffs can be a powerful and effective tool of statecraft. The evidence could be seen last year when resistant trading partners were dragged to the negotiating table. The progress with the United Kingdom, India, Japan, and others is real, as is the leverage that produced it.

However, as I’ve argued before, tariffs without significant domestic reforms won’t solve our manufacturing malaise but will make it worse.

Like any tool, tariffs can be right for one job but wrong for another. They’ve proven well-suited to changing another government’s behavior in certain instances, opening the door to more favorable terms for American exporters or reducing fentanyl pouring into the country.

Anyone who dismisses tariffs as categorically destructive isn’t paying attention.

They are far less suited to the distinct goal of rebuilding domestic steel and aluminum production—with the current 50% rate, imposed as it has been, inflicting avoidable harm on the much larger economy that uses those metals. Instead, domestic reforms would be a better tool for the job.

Consider a distinction that often gets lost: a penalty tells a company what not to do; a reward tells it what to do.

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