Tariffs? Seriously?

 Imposing tariffs can backfire if the demand for imports is inelastic. The result in that case will be inflation and high interest rates that will ultimately hurt your own economy. 

From another perspective, in the case of the savage tariffs on China's electric cars from America and Europe, the effect is already visible with the transfer of production to the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Turkey, Hungary, Brazil, etc. 

Let us not forget also that the resulting overvalued dollar, due to tariffs, combined with the retaliatory tariffs from affected countries, is bound to hurt U.S. exports. The literature on such matters is vast, but I wonder if the Council of Economic Advisers to the President has ever bothered to study it. 

HH