Right, but this ignores two things. One, that our Government works for us. Not the globe. In theory, they’re job is to put our interests over everyone else in the World’s. Something we haven’t done, clearly.
Two, unconditional trade only creates a scenario where countries ignore that their workers are human beings and instead treat them like complete shit just so they can make something as cheap as possible. By having tarrifs, we essentially force countries to treat workers more fair as a terms of our new trade agreement. Otherwise, we will just continue to artificially raise the price.
Look at what Mexico caved to in the new NAFTA deal. Guaranteed $16/hr USD by 2023 for anyone working for auto manufacturers. That is what should be happening with every major manufacturing country we trade with.
Of course we live in a global economy, but we get taken advantage of from it. The truth is, what Trump is doing needed to be done. Criticize Trump all you want about pretty much anything else. But his tarriffs have had the desired effect. He has won with NAFTA and the EU. China appears to be on their heels as well. The truth is the other countries had no reason to work on trade terms because they were benefiting from them more than we were. Now they are getting the stick instead of the carrot and they are caving.
