i am taking a class in international economics this semester. the overwhelming consensus among economists is that tariffs are bad. what is the economic argument for trump's tariffs?  if i had to summarize what i learned: 1. classic trade theory says that dissimilar countries (china and the us) benefit from free trade because letting the other country produce a good in which they have lower relative cost allows you to specialize in a good which you are able to produce at lower relative cost. 2. new trade theory says that similar countries (us and japan) benefit from free trade because it allows them to produce different variations of the same good (e.g. the us produces trucks and japan produces sedans) with economics of scale. consumers benefit from the lower cost from the economics of scale and from the product variety.
United States