Think tank spells out tariff opposition

The Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank and policy analysis organization associated with conservative political views, has published a commentary titled “Tariffs Are Never a Good Idea. Those on Aluminum Are Especially Bad.”

The commentary’s co-authors, Patrick Tyrell and Anthony B. Kim, state that with aluminum prices having risen 59 percent from one year ago, it is “high time to stop taxing Americans for the simple act of having a cola or a beer.”

The duo notes the tariffs were originally put in place in 2018, “ostensibly to protect domestic aluminum producers” because aluminum producers in China and other nations were “dumping aluminum into the U.S. at low prices below cost to capture market share and supposedly drive American producers of aluminum out of business.”

Tyrell and Kim write, “In fact, the idea of dumping is one of the great unicorns of trade policy: oft-imagined but rarely seen in reality. Even state-supported Chinese firms cannot sustain such losses, bleeding money with each shipment of aluminum sent across the ocean.”

The Heritage Foundation researchers express disappointment that President Joe Biden not only failed to repeal the Trump administration tariffs but, “One of his first actions as president was to reinstate aluminum tariffs on aluminum exported from the United Arab Emirates that had been previously lifted.”

Looking at circumstances in 2021, The Heritage Foundation states, “Aluminum prices are now much higher than they were in 2018, when the 10 percent tariffs were originally inflicted on American users of the metal. As for China, it is now a net importer of aluminum, and things are getting worse for aluminum users around the world.”