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Free Trade


BIDEN'S TARIFFS ARE A BAD IDEA


BAD FOR CONSUMERS, BAD FOR AMERICAN INDUSTRY, BAD FOR HIS ADMINISTRATION'S OWN
ENVIRONMENTAL GOALS, AND BAD FOR AN INCREASINGLY IRRATIONAL EXECUTIVE BRANCH.

Eric Boehm | 5.14.2024 3:15 PM

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When he was campaigning four years ago, Joe Biden offered voters an alternative
to the flawed protectionism and expensive tariffs of the Trump administration.
"We're going after China in the wrong way," he said at one point during that
successful run at the White House. On other occasions, he (correctly)
highlighted how Americans were bearing the brunt of then-President Donald
Trump's tariffs, a sentiment that reflected his long history of pro-trade views.

With the prospect of a rematch against Trump looming in November, the Biden
administration announced Tuesday that voters won't be getting that choice this
time around.

After days of speculation and leaks, the White House officially ordered massive
new tariffs against Chinese-made electric vehicles (E.V.s), semiconductors, port
equipment, and medical gear, including syringes and rubber gloves. In other
words, Biden is now actively pursuing an agenda that he once termed "the wrong
way" to counter China.

The White House announced Tuesday that it would double existing tariffs on
semiconductors from 25 percent to 50 percent, hike tariffs on steel and
aluminum, and increase tariffs on many components used to build E.V. batteries
from 7.5 percent to 25 percent. The big blow is the stunning tariff hike on
E.V.s imported from China, which will now be subject to a 100 percent tariff, up
from 25 percent.

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Only about 1 percent of American E.V. imports come from China right now, but the
high tariffs will effectively guarantee that Americans cannot purchase cars from
some of the world's biggest E.V. manufacturers in the future.

It is a decision that reflects the muddled economic thinking that has defined
Biden's time in office. It is a promise to raise taxes on Americans who want to
purchase products the president disfavors, one that cuts directly against the
same president's own environmental goals, all wrapped up inside silly
election-year rhetoric.

"Today's announcement reflects President Biden's commitment to always have the
back of American workers," the White House said in a statement.

But once those workers clock out and become consumers, things might look a bit
different. As I've written before, both Trump and Biden err when they propose
policies that benefit workers at the expense of everyone else. The economy is
not made up of workers and consumers competing against one another but of
individuals who are sometimes workers and sometimes consumers. The zero-sum
logic behind economic protectionism makes everyone poorer even as the
politicians promise otherwise.

And we know how tariffs work—or, rather, don't work. Indeed, we've had a
six-year-long experiment in exactly this phenomenon.

"Tariffs on Chinese EVs won't just make Chinese EVs more expensive, they will
also make American EVs more expensive," Ryan Young, a senior economist with the
Competitive Enterprise Institute, said in a statement. "This is because domestic
producers can now raise their prices without fear of being undercut by
competitors. Good for them but bad for consumers—and for the Biden
administration's policy goal of increased EV adoption."

Young pointed to the fact that domestic steel prices rose after Trump slapped
tariffs on imported steel. Higher steel prices affected consumers in a variety
of indirect ways, like by raising the price of cars and other products made from
steel.



Erica York, a senior economist at the Tax Foundation, tells Reason that the new
tariffs "will work no differently under President Biden than they did under
former President Trump; they'll raise costs for consumers and businesses, and in
this case, those higher costs will work in direct opposition to Biden's goal of
greater EV adoption."

After the 2020 election, the incoming Biden administration's talk of a thorough
review of Trump-era tariffs never amounted to much, and the White House has kept
most of Trump's tariffs in place despite a lack of evidence that they are
accomplishing anything other than raising prices for American businesses and
consumers. Even though Biden has governed as a protectionist president,
Tuesday's decision illustrates the extent to which cynical politics have
triumphed over serious economics in Washington today—even after several years of
higher-than-normal inflation have made Americans particularly aware of price
hikes.

In that environment, adding more tariffs "is remarkably tone-deaf," says Bryan
Riley, director of the free trade initiative at the National Taxpayers Union
Foundation. "There is near-universal agreement that Section 301 tariffs
failed to achieve their goals while costing U.S. taxpayers the equivalent of
$1,700 per household and sparking Chinese retaliation against U.S. farmers and
other exporters. It is asinine for the Biden administration to double down on
this failed policy."

When voters go to the polls this November, they will face a choice between two
men who have used their presidential powers to hike import taxes on American
businesses and consumers (one of whom is campaigning on a promise to use tariffs
even more aggressively in the future). Now would be a good time for Congress to
claw back some of the trade policy power it has delegated to an increasingly
irrational executive branch.

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trends every weekday morning when you subscribe to Reason Roundup.

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NEXT: New York's City of Maybe

Eric Boehm is a reporter at Reason.

Free TradeTariffsBiden AdministrationJoe BidenElectric carsAutomobilesChina
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