FooBarBizBazz 8 days ago

Really the way to do it, AFAIK (say, per How Asia Works), is to apply selective subsidies, not tariffs, and to subject the subsidized industries to substantial export discipline. That's what gets you South Korean world-beaters. Autarkic tariffs just get you Indian industry, where consumers have learned that the few goods marked "export quality" are superior.

And, I don't want to be partisan about this stuff, but, that's basically what "Bidenonics" was trying to do, in a small way: Subsidize a few industries like semiconductors and batteries and solar panels, that were deemed strategically important.

Whether the US was ever going to be as serious as South Korea or Japan about this remained to be seen. Frequently the subsidies seem to be handed out and then nothing happens (e.g., "Gigafactory" in Buffalo, NY).

2
klooney 8 days ago

Korea used to have substantial auto tariffs. Every nation with an auto industry does.

Tariffs are/can be effective, you're just not supposed to tariffs everything on a whim.

Yeul 8 days ago

You are advocating a stronger government when the GOP basically wants to eliminate it...