Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs are incoherent, but that should not discredit targeted tariffs paired with investment as a policy lever.
A significant cost from two months of incoherent Trump tariff policy could be the broad discrediting of an economic tool that actually can be extremely valuable. The president-who-cried-tariff threats and on-again, off-again levies—often targeting the wrong countries and goals—have generated unnecessary economic damage and political pushback.
Contrary to what has been drilled into many of our heads, tariffs can be effective. Indeed, some tariff uses are unavoidable if we are to replace a trade regime that had caused real damage to many. But will the “reciprocal tariff” plan the administration plans to unveil on April 2 be designed to do that? The 25 percent tariffs on automobiles announced on March 26 hint that we may begin to see a more trade-focused approach to tariff use, but that alone does not a strategy make.
