Congress should reassert its role in trade policy after the midterms

With the congressional midterm elections approaching, the overriding issue for voters is President Trump’s inability to improve their cost of living. Along with higher oil prices associated with the Iran war, Trump’s tariffs are unpopular. The current situation is unusual in that tariffs traditionally have ranked near the bottom of U.S. voters’ policy priorities. The reason is that tariffs were low during the post-war era, and customers did not notice them. That is no longer the case. Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute recently highlighted the results of a Cato Institute-Morning Consults survey. The key finding was that 75 percent of the respondents said tariffs will be important to their vote in the November midterms, including 35 percent who said the issue is very important. The survey also revealed how much at odds Trump’s views on tariffs are with the respondents: 74 percent said tariffs raised prices at the store, and 53 percent said they weakened the U.S. economy. Only 21 percent agreed with Trump’s position that foreigners primarily pay for tariffs. These results are consistent with a New York Federal Reserve study that found Trump’s tariffs contributed 2.9 percentage points to goods price inflation Yet despite this, Trump has shown no inclination to alter his stance on tariffs. He clings to the view that America’s trading partners have taken advantage of the openness of the American economy and that tariffs are necessary to reduce the U.S. trade deficit and to rest…