Hot take: tariffs aren't always bad.

If used strategically they call the bluff on manipulations of the Geopolitical Game of Prisoner's Dilemma.

Case and point: Steel Tariffs in March 2018:

"Trump implemented a 25% tariff on steel imports in March 2018. His reasoning was related to national security, along with a desire to get US steel mills operating at 80% capacity or higher.

Naturally, the critics of tariffs would argue that steel prices should have increased by 25% or more post-tariff, but as you can see in this chart — steel prices increased through the summer (steel prices had already been skyrocketing pre-tariff too) and then began falling substantially. US steel prices eventually fell to price levels much lower than pre-tariff prices."

Source: https://pomp.substack.com/p/welcome-to-the-tariff-era-the-truth

If we are in a game of Geopolitical Prisoner's Dilemma , then that means that we have to transcend basic bitch free market absolutism. I would love if everyone played nice but there are hidden costs to just allowing peers to defect without consequence.