The US have 3 issues to resolve. Production/Jobs, Finance/Debt and Military/Power.
A long period of outsourcing production has left the US vulnerable in many areas and has removed vast swathes of jobs making previously productive demographics unproductive and reliant on welfare. Tariffs incentivise reindustrialising and reverses this process because tarrifs are applied when goods enter the country. To be competitive locally those imported goods will need to be manufactured locally. Company wants to dodge? Build/start a factory, cue jobs etc. Extreme numbers over a long enough period (years, likely multiple terms) required to force hands and make it better than waiting for favourable political climate that might undo it.
Finance/Debt is all bout 10 trillion of debt incurred during covid that needs to be refinanced within the next year or so. Also why DOGE is so important atm. Tariffs can improve the inflow/outflow equation of the overall economy and create a large enough reduction in interest rates so that debt can be refinanced at a lower rate. Main goal is to head off an irreversible debt spiral that the US is staring down the barrel of. China is in a similar boat and it is bad for China for similar reasons that it would be good for the US.
Military/Power is all about China and how military supply lines have 100s of failure points because they rely on China for materials/technology etc. Not a great position to be in for a superpower and their military to be at the mercy of an immediate global competitor. They'll be focussing on bringing those requirements back to US shores or being more reliant on reliable allies for those items.
That's broadly what's going on. Each individual piece can be better resolved with other methods but tariffs are the one tool in the toolbox that can actualy resolve all of those if applied correctly. I susupect tariffs will be rolled back for the most part as everybody decides to play ball and renogotiate trade deals (inflow/outflow rebalancing) and it will make moves towards isolating China in Global Trade.
The US have 3 issues to resolve. Production/Jobs, Finance/Debt and Military/Power.
A long period of outsourcing production has left the US vulnerable in many areas and has removed vast swathes of jobs making previously productive demographics unproductive and reliant on welfare. Tariffs incentivise reindustrialising and reverses this process because tarrifs are applied when goods enter the country. To be competitive locally those imported goods will need to be manufactured locally. Company wants to dodge? Build/start a factory, cue jobs etc. Extreme numbers over a long enough period (years, likely multiple terms) required to force hands and make it better than waiting for favourable political climate that might undo it.
Finance/Debt is all bout 10 trillion of debt incurred during covid that needs to be refinanced within the next year or so. Also why DOGE is so important atm. Tariffs can improve the inflow/outflow equation of the overall economy and create a large enough reduction in interest rates so that debt can be refinanced at a lower rate. Main goal is to head off an irreversible debt spiral that the US is staring down the barrel of. China is in a similar boat and it is bad for China for similar reasons that it would be good for the US.
Military/Power is all about China and how military supply lines have 100s of failure points because they rely on China for materials/technology etc. Not a great position to be in for a superpower and their military to be at the mercy of an immediate global competitor. They'll be focussing on bringing those requirements back to US shores or being more reliant on reliable allies for those items.
That's broadly what's going on. Each individual piece can be better resolved with other methods but tariffs are the one tool in the toolbox that can actualy resolve all of those if applied correctly. I susupect tariffs will be rolled back for the most part as everybody decides to play ball and renogotiate trade deals (inflow/outflow rebalancing) and it will make moves towards isolating China in Global Trade.