Donald Trump has notably changed political positions as well as parties during his career, having registered with both the Democratic Party and the Reform Party before becoming a Republican. However, one issue on which he has been remarkably consistent is international trade. Since the 1980s, Trump has argued that the U.S. is being taken advantage of by other countries due to its liberal trade policy. Upon being elected president in 2016, Trump sought to address this through tariffs.
A special tax on imports, tariffs serve a dual purpose. Aside from raising government revenue, they are intended to protect domestic industries from foreign competitors and encourage consumption of domestic goods by making imported products more expensive. While the late 18th century saw the British Empire shift away from tariff-oriented protectionism toward a liberal policy of free trade, the newly independent United States of America relied on tariffs to build up its fledgling industries. Tariffs were the largest source of federal revenue until the introduction of the income tax, and the U.S. maintained one of the highest tariff rates among developed nations well into the 20th century.
During the postwar era, however, the U.S. emerged as the global leader in tariff reduction, promoting trade among capitalist countries as a counterweight to communism. And with the end of the Cold War, neoliberal economic thinking that stressed free trade as the key to economic growth dominated worldwide. In American politics, the business-backed Republican Party pushed for market-oriented policies, while the Democratic Party retained some support for protectionism due to its association with labor unions.
Trump’s focus on tariffs has therefore appeared as a drastic departure from prior Republican platforms. The Trump presidency saw tariff rates as high as 30% on imports, ranging from consumer goods like solar panels and washing machines to raw materials like steel and aluminum, as well as a broad range of tariffs targeting Chinese products. Although Trump claimed his tariffs would benefit the American economy, their impact was mixed. Besides finished goods, the tariffs also raised the costs of imported components and materials used by American manufacturers, which was ultimately passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices. And as China and other countries retaliated with tariffs of their own, export-oriented U.S. industries lost revenue and jobs. Agriculture was one of the hardest hit sectors, with the administration eventually passing a $16 billion aid package to help American farmers offset the costs of the trade war. Nevertheless, Trump has doubled down in his 2024 campaign, promising a slew of new tariffs if elected.
But aside from their effectiveness, Trump’s support for tariffs may not be quite as radical as it appears. Even during the postwar era, the U.S. imposed tariffs in some sectors such as the auto industry and maintained protectionist agricultural policy through subsidies to American farmers. Moreover, the administration of President Joe Biden has kept many of Trump’s tariffs in place, and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, has expressed support for tariffs in key industries.
This bipartisan shift in trade policy comes at a time of robust dialogue about overall global delinking in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as countries seek to reshore their supply chains and reduce their economic reliance on geopolitical adversaries. Regardless of who wins the election, a return to the free-trade consensus of previous decades is unlikely to come soon.
