Tariffs as a Cudgel

Tariffs - the economic equivalent of a toddler smashing their toys in a tantrum and expecting applause. Every so often, a leader convinced of their own brilliance decides that the best way to “win” at trade is to slap taxes on imported goods, as if that somehow levels the playing field rather than setting it on fire. 

Trump, of course, was (and remains) a master of this blundering approach, launching a full-blown trade war with China between 2018 and 2020, armed with little more than bravado and a misunderstanding of basic economics.

The theory was simple: tax Chinese imports, force American companies to produce domestically, and reduce the trade deficit. The reality? American consumers bore the brunt of higher prices, farmers found themselves bankrupt as China retaliated, and supply chains buckled under the weight of self-inflicted chaos. The trade deficit barely budged. Instead of reviving American manufacturing, Trump’s tariffs simply shuffled production to Vietnam, Mexico, and other countries smart enough to swoop in while Washington flailed about. China, unsurprisingly, did not cave to the bluster – it retaliated in kind, targeting U.S. agriculture and tech industries with its own tariffs, ensuring that America’s pain was very much self-inflicted.

Then there were the 2018 tariffs on steel and aluminium, another gem in Trump’s economic crown. Sold as a way to protect American industry, they did little except increase costs for automakers, construction firms, and manufacturers reliant on these materials. The industries they were supposed to save? Barely benefited. The ones they harmed? Countless. The result? U.S. goods became less competitive abroad, job losses mounted in downstream industries, and any marginal gains in steel production were dwarfed by the overall economic damage.

Tariff wars have been tried before, and they’ve almost always failed. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 should have been a cautionary tale, but apparently, history isn’t a strong suit for those who think governance is about chest-thumping rather than competence. That particular stroke of genius deepened the Great Depression, setting off a chain reaction of global economic retaliation. And yet, nearly a century later, the same mistakes were repeated, dressed up as “America First.”

The truth about tariffs is that they are a blunt instrument wielded by those who lack the patience or intelligence for real economic strategy. They don’t rebuild industries; they inflate costs. They don’t fix trade imbalances; they just redistribute them. They don’t create prosperity; they create chaos. If tariffs were the magical solution their champions claim, North Korea would be an economic powerhouse.

Trump’s trade war was less about strategy and more about ego, a self-defeating exercise in economic self-harm that left America weaker, its industries scrambling, and its global influence diminished. The winners? Competitor nations who took advantage of the turmoil. The losers? Consumers, workers, and businesses who paid the price for a policy that was never going to work. If tariffs were supposed to make America great again, they failed spectacularly – but then, so did their architect.

Contrast this with the European Union, which has been employing tariffs for decades, not as a sledgehammer but as a carefully calibrated tool. The EU’s common external tariff system has long been a means of protecting strategic industries, ensuring fair competition, and maintaining food security through the Common Agricultural Policy. Where the EU gets it right is in its consistency and predictability - tariffs are part of a structured trade policy, designed to promote economic stability rather than knee-jerk political showboating.

That’s not to say EU tariffs are always beneficial. Protectionist measures on agriculture, while safeguarding farmers, often lead to inflated food prices and disadvantage producers in developing nations. The EU’s tariffs on certain manufactured goods can also make essential imports more expensive, creating inefficiencies in its own market. However, the key difference is that the EU does not wield tariffs like a political cudgel; instead, it integrates them into a broader strategy of trade agreements, regulations, and economic diplomacy.

In short, tariffs are not inherently bad – but they need to be used with surgical precision, not swung around like a lead pipe in a bar fight. The EU understands this; Trump did not. And that is why one remains a stable economic bloc while the other flailed its way through a self-inflicted trade disaster.