The Tariff Symposium
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We asked five of our contributors for their thoughts on the past, present, and future of the Trump administration's self-declared trade war with nations spanning the globe.
Where does the tariff war go from here? Has it been a success, a failure, or one of mixed results? How do we even know the answers to these questions? Many inside the Trump administration and its vocal supporters have already hung the proverbial "Mission Accomplished" banner, justifying the tariff impositions. Many of these same voices have also claimed that economics itself has become the new emperor without clothes, incapable of explaining real economic phenomena. Tariffs, we are told, are needed to save the American economy. Yet, the Trump administration wisely included full tax expensing of capital goods purchases and research and experimental costs in the One Big Beautiful Bill. There is also the Trump administration's support for energy production and AI, and the industry's amazing potential. These and other reasons will make evaluating the relative effects of the tariffs on the overall economy challenging.
The contributors Richard Epstein, Samuel Gregg, G. Dirk Mateer, Dominic Pino, and Veronique de Rugy take a long view and consider, as best they can, the numerous inputs, data, and information that are needed to make a comprehensive assessment. Perhaps the one thing most needful is sound historical, economic, and policy understanding in evaluating the expanded taxation on American companies and consumers that the Trump administration has imposed and the numerous consequences that will continue to follow from it.
Richard M. Reinsch II is the editor-in-chief of Civitas Outlook.
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