It’s really not, at least for any country with industries that can’t stand up to goods that have been produced at what is essentially a major loss… in a country with already nearly non-existent labor costs.
Labour costs in China are not that low these days, that’s kind of the point of the subsidies. It’s also much more competitive to subsidise domestic production than to tariff imports. Without that, it just means that Americans pay more for the Chinese goods they’re going to buy anyway because they don’t have a domestic alternative. If the revenue from tariffs in America were actually used to improve manufacturing capacity it wouldn’t be such a problem.
It’s really not, at least for any country with industries that can’t stand up to goods that have been produced at what is essentially a major loss… in a country with already nearly non-existent labor costs.
Labour costs in China are not that low these days, that’s kind of the point of the subsidies. It’s also much more competitive to subsidise domestic production than to tariff imports. Without that, it just means that Americans pay more for the Chinese goods they’re going to buy anyway because they don’t have a domestic alternative. If the revenue from tariffs in America were actually used to improve manufacturing capacity it wouldn’t be such a problem.
Since when does the US not have an auto industry? That’s the biggest one being protected with tariffs, same story in EU.
the auto industry relies on Chinese imports for much of its materials, without extra investment only applying tariffs will hurt it too