We have import tariffs now, too.
The Ford Ranger was the best selling pickup truck in the US for many years. Haven't seen a new one in awhile? Ford moved production to Mexico and it then became subject to a 25% tariff on imported pickup trucks. So we were left with Toyota and Nissan pickups.
Toyota and Nissan, (foreign manufacturers) undoubtedly made a lot more money on both volume and margin because consumers no longer got the option of purchasing their favorite truck and those were the only two left.
I'm against having all consumers in America get screwed so that a million or two people can get manufacturing jobs. I cannot figure out why jobs in car manufacturing, smart phone assembly, etc, etc, is worth any more than what they get paid at mcdonalds for turning on a french fry machine. They are both unskilled labor.
I'll just add what Art Laffer said about trade.
If the US has a cure for heart disease and another country has a cure for cancer, and then the other country puts huge tariff on our cure for heart disease so it doesn't come in, are we supposed to say "hey, if you're not going to buy our cure for heart disease, then we're not going to buy your cure for cancer"?
People buy foreign products if it makes their life better.
Putting a tariff on foreign products is just an income transfer from the consumer to a few million manufacturing jobs that are overpaid.
