evidence: "Biden’s recently announced tariffs," according to the Center for American Progress Action Fund, "were specifically targeted to protect key industries of the future — including semiconductors and clean energy technologies — from China’s predatory export policies and were the result of a calculated, strategic review process that stands in stark contrast to the chaotic, knee-jerk approach to trade policy demonstrated by former President Donald Trump." [...] Other critics have been less sanguine about the long-term effect of the Trump tariffs (and Biden’s embrace of them). They have stressed, in particular, the cost to American consumers, who pay for the tariffs at the cash register. "The Trump administration imposed nearly $80 billion worth of new taxes on Americans by levying tariffs on thousands of products valued at approximately $380 billion in 2018 and 2019, amounting to one of the largest tax increases in decades," wrote Erica York for the Tax Foundation. Tariffs, she continued, "lead to a net loss in production and jobs and lower levels of income." They are also notably regressive, burdening poor consumers more than rich ones. Trump and his allies reject the idea that tariffs burden consumers. "The notion that tariffs are a tax on U.S. consumers is a lie pushed by outsourcers and the Chinese Communist Party," declared a spokesman for the Republican National Committee.