The winners and losers from tariffs are never as clear-cut as politicians assume. For every domestic industry that benefits from a high tariff, the high prices it engenders invariably harm other industries. Often, these costs are greater than the intended benefits.
For instance, in the 1980s, Voluntary Restraint Agreements that reduced the importation of steel may have saved jobs in the steel industry, but studies estimated--one of which was my own--that it cost at least as many jobs in the auto and construction equipment industries as they saved.
