By Howard Last, Guest Writer

Much fuss has been made over President Trump’s new tariffs. I have to admit, I’m a little irked, too – tariffs shouldn’t just be a negotiating tool, they ought to be permanent. Rather than give my opinion, however, I’d like to undertake a once-honorable task and defend our President’s policy. 

America’s success has been in part due to the import tariffs put on goods from other nations. Alexander Hamilton extolled the virtue of the tariff as being necessary for the support of infant industries, but also for the growth of domestic manufacturing as a whole. Without making this piece a historical overview, I’d just like to make it clear that tariffs have been as American as apple pie and baseball. Free trade has only been a part of the American political consensus since the 1990s. Free trade is an anomaly for the American economy, and I’m glad this grievous wrong is finally being righted.

The Trump tariff plan is quite simple when laid out. Nations put tariffs on American goods, restricting access to their markets, but America has allowed this transgression without any punitive response. Trump is responding to this imbalance by implementing a series of reciprocal tariffs. Proponents of free trade will point to the efficiency and efficacy of the free market, but they will never admit that the global trade market has been distorted by every nation on Earth. Only America has refused to stand up for its own interests.

The benefits tariffs will bring to America are well known, such as manufacturing and other jobs returning to America. The heartlands will fill up again, people will live in Ohio’s rural areas again, small towns across America will be visited by high-paying jobs once more and the middle class will have a chance at seizing the American dream for the first time in a generation. Of course, tariffs aren’t the panacea to save America from the brink, but they’re a necessary stepping stone to a prosperous tomorrow. We have the capital, we have the labor. All we need is the market. That’s what these tariffs will give us.

Not only will American entrepreneurs start businesses, invest in America’s heartlands and ensure that supply chains are domestic and stronger than ever, but already existing companies will shift their production to America. 

Already, General Motors is shifting production from overseas to existing Indiana plants. Like I mentioned, the capital already exists, it just has to be used. The more that these companies invest in America and create American jobs, the more people in the manufacturing sector will be working. This will create the conditions needed for a tight labor market, meaning that wages for these jobs will only get higher as demand for labor increases. This transferral of wealth will only benefit the least well-off and will force the CEOs and entrepreneurs to pay their employees livable wages. They did so before free trade, and they’ll have to do so again.

There are also non-tariff barriers to trade put in place by countries across the world. The most egregious of these are all found in the European Union. They will regulate their market so that no American goods may gain entry into their market. In truth, they’re wise to do this. Their domestic industries prosper when the largest economy cannot reach in and put in American products, but these European manufacturers and producers still have access to the world’s largest market: ours. A reciprocal tariff in instances like these must take into account all non-tariff barriers, or our best assessment of fair trade will still put America last.

I commend the President’s actions in the realm of trade. For too long, America has put itself in second place to every other nation. Thankfully, the era of America Last mentality is over, and the time for America First begins right now. I think these policy prescriptions, along with many other of Trump’s executive actions, have to be made permanent by an act of Congress.