Greg Ip:
So I think that the — certainly, Trump’s first administration, and to some extent the Biden administration, made a distinction between China and everybody else.
There was a recognition that China was a strategic competitor to the United States and that it did not adhere to the rules of global trade as other countries understand it. And so there was a better case for imposing high tariffs on China, notwithstanding the harm that that would cause to those who import things from China.
In this case, the president is not really making that distinction. He’s saying tariffs on everybody, whether or not you’re an ally. And that’s because the motive here is to try and protect the U.S. steel and aluminum industries.
Now, to be sure, China, even though it’s not the specific — it’s not being singled out in these tariffs, it’s sort of there in the background, because one of the concerns that folks have had about tariffs and about China in the past is that, even when there are tariffs on Chinese steel, it comes in through third countries, where China sells steel cheaply to one country.
That country’s industry suffers, and it sells its steel to the United States. So there might be in a roundabout way an effort to get at China. But that is, I think, kind of secondary. What Trump is saying here is, he is willing to impose very high tariffs indefinitely to protect industries that are important to him.
