Taking a Stand

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump imposed reciprocal tariffs across the globe, calling it “Liberation Day”. When Trump first brought up this plan, he said, “I’ve decided, for purposes of fairness, that I will charge a reciprocal tariff, meaning whatever countries charge the United States of America. In almost all cases, they’re charging us vastly more than we charge them, but those days are over.” Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz responded, “This is an attack on a trade order that has created prosperity all over the globe”. He called Trump’s tariff policy “fundamentally wrong”, and called on the European Union to “flex its muscles”. The trade order that he refers to has created prosperity in his country at the expense of the United States, and that is why he is speaking out against the reciprocal tariffs.

China accused the United States of “unilateral bullying” and “protectionism,” and threatened “countermeasures” against the United States. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Thursday, “The so-called reciprocal tariffs have violated international trade rules and undermine the legitimate rights and interests of relevant parties… We have emphasized more than once that trade and tariff wars have no winners.” I do not know how he could make a statement like that with a straight face. The hypocrisy is laughable. These are not “so-called reciprocal tariffs”, they are reciprocal tariffs, so any country speaking out against them, is a hypocrite. Donald Trump has not imposed one tariff on a foreign country which is greater than the tariff that they are already imposing on the United States. Trump gave these countries the power to determine the tariff we impose on their goods – it will be the same tariff they impose on our goods. And they do not like that because they benefit form the imbalance of tariffs. And their rigged game is going away.  

The United States has the largest trade deficit in the world. In 2023, it was $773.4 billion. We have a $279 billion trade deficit with China, a $152 billion trade deficit with Mexico, a $67 billion trade deficit with Canada. These three countries combined to account for over 40% of goods imported to the United States. And all of these deficits have been created by the uneven tariffs that these countries have imposed on the United States. We have rarely had free or fair trade in America because United States Presidents have refused to do what Trump just did.

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi spoke out against Trump’s tariffs on X saying, “Donald Trump’s reckless tariffs will cause chaos in our economy, raise prices for consumers and hurt hardworking American families. This is not a strategy — it’s the largest tax hike on the American people in history.” This is a surprising statement because back in 1996, when the United States was on the verge of granting China Most Favored Nation status, Pelosi was rather prescient when speaking out against the threat of China. She said, “In terms of tariffs, it’s think it’s interesting to note that the average U.S. MFN tariff on Chinese goods coming into the United States is 2 percent whereas the average MFN tariff on U.S. goods going into China is 35 percent. Is that reciprocal?” She went on to say, “the fact is that U.S.-China trade is a job loser… a country the size of China with the slave labor, the lack of market access, that rips off our intellectual property, the transfer of technology, a country that is not willing to play by the rules in any respect to trade relationship, you have a serious threat … to the industrialized world.” In 1996, she sounded an awful lot like Donald J Trump, and Trump is finally doing something about her warnings. Why doesn’t she just take her “W” and move on? Because she is bought and paid for by the globalists now.

This reaction was expected. It is not much different from the people who are torching Tesla cars because of DOGE. The days of people – inside or outside the United States – unfairly exploiting the largesse of America and its government is over. And those who have been taking advantage the United States for decades, cannot accept the fact that United States refuses to roll over for them anymore, and they are throwing a collective fit.

In reality, Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are long overdue. They should’ve been put in place decades ago. America needs to stop being the trade whipping boy for the rest of the world. Obviously, the fear mongering makes no sense. If Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods hurt the American consumer, then China’s tariffs on American goods should have been hurting the Chinese consumer, which they haven’t. And if China’s tariffs on American goods hurt American companies, then Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods should hurt Chinese companies. So, everything that the fear-mongers have been claiming will harm the United States, should have been harming places like China, Canada, and the European Union who have been imposing exorbitant tariffs on the United States for decades, but they haven’t. And if Donald Trump imposing reciprocal tariffs on the rest of the world will hurt America, then the rest of the world should remain silent, and let America destroy itself. But it appears that the rest of the world is more panicked about the tariffs than Americans are.

The rest of the world doesn’t like this because if the tariffs are equally high from both countries, that will force consumers to purchase more products from companies in their own countries and purchase less imports. So, the question is which country has the biggest market? And the answer is the United States of America. It is much more important for China to sell their products in America than it is for American companies to sell their products in China. 360 million Americans not buying Canadian products hurts Canada much more than 30 million Canadians not buying American products. Trump knows this, and this is where our power lies. The cost to do business in America should be either reciprocal tariffs or absolute free trade meaning 0% bilateral tariffs.

The question is, do the American people have the wherewithal to do what needs to be done to get rid our trade deficit which hurts our economy, and to do what’s necessary to bring manufacturing back to America? Deep down, we know this is the right thing to do in the long run, but we will have to work through a volatile stock market and possible spike in inflation. For too long, United States have had a short-sighted vision on handling these types of situations because the politicians don’t want to run for re-election during a down market, so they cut short-term deals which brings short-term prosperity but are devastating to our economy and our country in the long run. If we have the collective will to stay with these types of policies and not take a short-sighted view and panic, we will come out the other end of this a year from now in the strongest economic position the United States has ever been in.

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Mr. Garrett is a graduate of Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.