Playing Down Tariffs President Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan last week conceded that “there is still work to be done bringing tariff levels down in many other countries” but insisted that there are other fundamental trade priorities than simply bringing down tariffs. The Administration is correct that nontariff barriers and regulatory standards are important, but agriculture groups note that tariffs or duties are the go-to tool for managing trade. The Biden Administration itself has used tariffs on steel, aluminum, solar panels and other goods as its preferred form of border measure. The whole safeguard system of countervailing and antidumping measures relies on tariffs. So the Administration can try to...

TAGS – North America, Macroeconomics