Tariffs

devil's advocate

One could make the case for high tariffs on trade goods.

1. Some of our trading partners, such as China and Saudi Arabia, have terrible human rights policies. We could limit trade with these countries as a signal that we disapprove. To be effective, we would promise to reduce tariffs when their human rights situation improves. And we would need to apply the same rules with every nation.

2. Global trade has some downsides. It is a major contributor to climate change. Regions of the world should be more self-sufficient. We should "buy local" to support local workers.

That said, any changes to tariffs will have a ton of bad consequences in the short term. The best approach is to schedule a slow increase of rates over decades, not to unilaterally impose large rates immediately. It took decades for the current global economy to form; I expect it would take a similar time to make major changes without disruption.