The Impossible Trinity at the Heart of US Tariffs
Trump’s objectives of revenue generation, reshoring and an international reset are incompatible with each other.
Pick one.
Photographer: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
If you’ve spent hopeless hours searching for coherence in the White House’s trade strategy set to be unveiled April 2 — a date President Donald Trump is calling “Liberation Day” — don’t fret because there is none to be found.
To date, Trump has put forward three primary objectives of the levies. The first is raising tax revenue to help close the federal budget deficit and pay for an extension of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 that is due to expire at the end of the year. The second is to bring back to the US manufacturing that have migrated overseas, igniting a new “Golden Age” of America. The third is to achieve foreign policy goals.