© Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump
I am not a supporter of Donald Trump, but I can recognize the potential of tariffs as a strategic counter to globalism and the multipolar world led by BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
Tariffs are taxes levied on goods imported into the United States, paid by American importers rather than foreign governments. For example, if a company imports Chinese steel subject to a tariff, it incurs an additional cost at US Customs, often passed on to consumers through higher prices.
Trump utilized tariffs extensively - targeting steel, aluminum, and numerous Chinese goods -
to protect US industries, promote domestic production, and curb the expansive reach of globalism, which has reduced some nations to mere transit points for multinational corporations.
Tariffs also address the significant US trade deficit, where imports vastly outstrip exports.
By raising the cost of foreign goods, they could bolster American manufacturing and diminish that disparity.Historically, the US relied exclusively on tariffs to finance its government, a practice dominant in the 18th and 19th centuries when income taxes were nonexistent. Before the 16th Amendment in 1913, tariffs funded federal operations - roads, defense, and administration -
without taxing individual earnings, a system Trump's tariff-heavy approach partially revives to support economic objectives.
This reduces reliance on creditors like China, which holds a substantial share of US debt.Many, however, conflate tariffs with sanctions, assuming a punitive intent. Under Trump,
tariffs are distinctly an economic tool, advancing his America First agenda by
prioritizing US interests, marking a shift from a globalist system under US leadership - where international cooperation and institutions prevailed -
toward a US-centric imperialism that asserts dominance through economic might,
potentially paving the way for a multipolar world defined by competing spheres of influence.
Comment: And yet Queen of the EU von der Leyen has had much more serious charges magically disappear:
Rules for thee, etc. . . .