More to come on how to think about the various tariffs (which seem to come under various authorities, including Sec. 232, Sec. 301, countervailing duties, etc., the White House statement doesn’t spell it all out) in a bit. But first, some slides covering nuances of trade policy (not even thinking about national security issues) from my 2022 trade policy class.
Source: Feenstra, Taylor, International Economics.
I would present slides from International Economics (Cambridge University Press), by me and Douglas Irwin (Dartmouth) but the book is embargoed until later this year.
Dr. Irwin has some thoughts on infant industry protection, in this paper on the tin plate industry. I don’t know what he thinks about the current slate of interventions (although his views on the Trump tariffs are here).
It seems a “rite of passage” for some of the better economists out there to have their own textbook, and to be published by Cambridge University Press is a pretty solid score. My guess is this occurrence causes Professor Chinn mostly to yawn. But it’s pretty cool. Congrats Prof Chinn. Your Dad is looking down on you very proudly I’m pretty certain.
Industrial policy analysis calls for a two-handed economist. “On the other hand” infant industries are allowed time to become competitive, but are not compelled to do so. Protection can go either way.