Two recent news items have spurred the return of the tariff issue to the front burner of American politics.
First (at the time of writing), President Trump will attend a summit with People’s Republic of China (PRC) President Xi Jinping in May.
Second, U.S. Steel has announced plans to resume operations at its Gary, Indiana, tin mill.
And, again, one will hear the Free Traders shrilly bemoaning how “tariffs are a tax on consumers.”
If one were to honestly accept the Free Traders’ logic that a company passing off its costs of compliance with a federal statute and/or regulation on to consumers constitutes a “tax,” one would then be required to declare almost every governmental decision touching upon the health, safety, and welfare of the nation a tax as well. So, too, corporations and companies are not required to pass on the costs of the tariffs to anyone. It is a choice they make based upon market conditions.
Yet, consider the inanity of arguing that statutes opposing child labor laws are a tax because they will raise the cost of labor that the mining company then must pass on to consumers. (I am, admittedly, not a libertarian.)
Join the conversation as a VIP Member