this seems to misunderstand what tarrifs actually do. It's the US companies that pay the tarrifs. The concept of 'if we increase the tarrifs, US manufacturing will come back".
That's not how the world works. It takes years to switch a manufacturer depending on terms, who owns the molds, etc.
Placing tarrifs on China hurts American consumers. Instead, there should be tax incentives for producing stateside.
I'm not arguing whether tarriffs are good or bad, but the absolutely do work.
> It's the US companies that pay the tarrifs.
No, customers pay the tarriffs at the end of the day. Companies raise the prices of imported goods to cover the tarriffs, and tarriffs in this case are set so that the final retail price of imported goods matches (or exceeds) the domestic manufacturing price.
> The concept of 'if we increase the tarrifs, US manufacturing will come back"... It takes years...
The idea is generally to have tarriffs from the beginning so manufacturing never leaves. Because you're right, otherwise it does take years.
> Placing tarrifs on China hurts American consumers. Instead, there should be tax incentives for producing stateside.
There's no difference, they harm consumers equally. Corporate tax incentives mean reduced government income which needs to be made up for with... higher personal taxes. Or higher corporate taxes in other sectors which lead to higher prices. No matter what, the consumer is paying.
Tarriffs or tax incentives have the same effect, but tax incentives are usually much more difficult to design and limit corporate flexibility in bad ways that are hard to foresee. Tarriffs have much more reliable enforcement and predictable effects.
>No, customers pay the tarriffs at the end of the day.
This depends on the product and the type of demand. If it's inelastic, yes. if it's consumer focused, yes. But most of the time that's not the case. Tarrifs on material exports ar b2b, where pricing agreements are common.
At the end of the day, tarrifs create downward pressure on companies profit margins. If you instead, gave incentives it would put upward pressure on the companies who created fucundity for the economy.
That's not how the world works. It takes years to switch a manufacturer depending on terms, who owns the molds, etc.
Placing tarrifs on China hurts American consumers. Instead, there should be tax incentives for producing stateside.