The point is that it's asymmetrical. The US produces high value products (high tech bearings, specialized software), stuff whose value is lower than the cost of transport (paper) and extractive goods (mining and agriculture). Other countries are more competitive on the low end stuff.
Look at electronics: yes, China has tons of people building phones, but Chinese companies get about $20 on each iPhone; other parts of the supply chain get dribs and drabs and Apple pockets a couple of hundred bucks, almost all of the profit. trying to do all that in the US wouldn't add much to the GDP and conversely would take people away from working on higher value goods. So for a wealthy country the tariffs not only don't help, they hurt.
Conversely US restrictions raise the value of Chinese companies working their own way up the value chain. Before those restrictions were in place it simply wasn't worth designing, say, a new chip; that takes a long time and while you're doing so other companies are smoking you by selling low cost chips designed elsewhere. Essentially the US was sucking the oxygen out of their competitor's market...but these tariffs stop that.
It's the same principle of why the US wouldn't want its NATO partners spending too much on defense: essentially bribing them to not have much military is cheaper than getting entangled in a future war on the continent. Again, trying to pressure them to spend more is a very expensive move in the medium and long term.
I would not describe any situation that results in perpetual bribery to stave off war ideal. That's extremely unfair to the American taxpayer. I would much rather spend that money on our own military so that we can have peace through strength. What you propose makes the American worker a slave to the rest of the world in an aims to appease them into not competing. That is ridiculous in my opinion as companies like Huawei prove that the competition is already here. Second, how are we ever going to compete when we keep sending them the designs for our latest gadgets? We're giving away the IP in exchange for cheap labor again at the expense of the American worker. China is going to be a major player in the next century and we had best prepare.
Why would that unfair to the American taxpayer? Making sure a war you want doesn't happen saves those taxpayers' lives (and money).
And in the Nato and Japanese case the "bribe" is paid in kind: you get what you are asking for (the US builds up its military and provides a security guarantee; those countries don't have to waste money on military expenditures and in exchange get a higher standard of living than the US). I suppose that's peace through strength.
> Second, how are we ever going to compete when we keep sending them the designs for our latest gadgets?
Sounds like the arguments against free software (AKA Open Source) I heard in the 80s and 90s.
The American worker isn't going to build these low margin products anyway; the design is where all the margin is.
Look at electronics: yes, China has tons of people building phones, but Chinese companies get about $20 on each iPhone; other parts of the supply chain get dribs and drabs and Apple pockets a couple of hundred bucks, almost all of the profit. trying to do all that in the US wouldn't add much to the GDP and conversely would take people away from working on higher value goods. So for a wealthy country the tariffs not only don't help, they hurt.
Conversely US restrictions raise the value of Chinese companies working their own way up the value chain. Before those restrictions were in place it simply wasn't worth designing, say, a new chip; that takes a long time and while you're doing so other companies are smoking you by selling low cost chips designed elsewhere. Essentially the US was sucking the oxygen out of their competitor's market...but these tariffs stop that.
It's the same principle of why the US wouldn't want its NATO partners spending too much on defense: essentially bribing them to not have much military is cheaper than getting entangled in a future war on the continent. Again, trying to pressure them to spend more is a very expensive move in the medium and long term.