They raise the cost to adversaries for access to American markets.

Do you know how that works, Michael?

The foreign company making the product has to pay the tariff to import the product. But then the tariff simply gets added to the price the buyer of the product must pay. The foreign company isn't paying the tariff, their buyer is paying the tariff. That works if you're trying to protect a domestic industry from foreign competition. But what if there is no domestic industry?

Cell phones are all made in China and the far east. (OK, Apple is expanding production into India, I think. That's the near east.) There is no US manufacture of cell phones.** So if you put a tariff on cell phones, consumers don't have an alternative. They must pay the higher price or go without. The same is true of most electronics.

If you put a 100% tariff on everything imported from China, you're not punishing China, you're punishing US consumers.

--Peter


**I found one cell phone maker that I've never heard of who makes phones in the US. Well, some of the phone. Pieces of it still come from the far east.