Here’s something the global elites and the Biden White House still refuse to admit: tariffs work.
President Donald J. Trump proved it. For decades, foreign governments played us for fools and suckers. They subsidized their industries, manipulated their currencies, slapped trade barriers and tariffs on our exports, and laughed when they dumped their products into our markets. Washington bureaucrats looked the other way.
The result? Empty factory floors. Broken towns. Families left behind.
Trump ended that nonsense. He stood up to China and the globalist elites. He leveled the playing field with tough, targeted tariffs. The same crowd of economic “experts” who cheered NAFTA and the WTO warned of disaster. They said Trump’s tariffs would crush our economy. Instead, the stock market hit records. Wages rose. Manufacturing jobs came back/home. Even Joe Biden couldn’t undo them, because even he knew they worked.
That’s the power of America First trade policy.
But here’s the deal: tariffs are a tool, not a doctrine. The goal is to put America and Americans first, not tariffs for the sake of tariffs. And when it comes to steel used in food cans, it’s time to take a closer look.
Canned goods are a staple for American families. Tuna, beans, baby formula, soup—you name it. But the truth is we don’t make enough of a specialty steel product, known as tinplate, domestically to supply all those U.S. producers and manufacturers. So when tariffs are placed on these materials, American canmakers and food producers aren’t competing with foreign cheaters. They’re just absorbing inflated costs, getting slammed with higher input costs, and passing it down to the grocery aisle.
The American Action Forum (AAF) crunched the numbers. With Trump doubling tariffs on steel to 50 percent, tariffs alone could make up as much as 12 percent of the total cost of making a can. Think about that. The average margin in the packaging industry is just 6.8 percent. Do the math. Companies can’t eat those costs. They have no choice but to raise prices on everyday goods.
And here’s the kicker: there isn’t enough U.S. tinplate production or supply to fall back on. Since 2018, nine tinplate production lines have closed. That’s roughly a 75 percent drop. Tariffs don’t push people to “buy American” when there isn’t enough American tinplate to buy. They just drive up costs for our companies and families.
Even worse, the biggest hits haven’t even landed yet. As AAF points out, canmakers negotiate contracts once a year, mostly in the fall. That means the sharpest price hikes won’t show up until 2026 and 2027, when new contract prices kick in. In plain English: we’re sitting on a slow-ticking time bomb of grocery price inflation, one built and created by our own government.
And who pays the price? Working-class American families. Seniors on fixed incomes. Parents stretching every dollar to feed their families/kids. These are the same folks Biden’s/Powell’s inflation already crushed. Do we really want to hand him a talking point that “tariffs raised the price of soup”? Of course not. That’s not America First. That is a self-inflicted injury.
Now let me be crystal clear: I’m not backing down from tariffs and neither should the president. I supported Trump when the elites mocked him. I’ll support him again when he brings our industries back home. But smart leadership means knowing when to adjust.
The solution is simple. Keep the tariffs that punish foreign cheaters and competitors like China. But ease them where they punish our own people - our farmers, our families and our manufacturers. Lower or exempt tariffs on specific tinplate products we don’t produce enough of here at home.
That’s not weakness. That’s winning.
President Trump’s economic legacy proves tariffs - done right - can restore American industry, economic and worker dignity, and national security. Now it’s time to fine-tune the playbook. We don’t need to abandon tariffs. We need to sharpen and target them. Use them where they punish foreign competitors, like China, not where they hurt a single mom from Cincinnati trying to put food on the table.
America First means putting the American workers, manufacturers, and consumers first. Not Beijing or Brussels. Not lobbyists on K Street.
Tariffs are a weapon. Let’s keep using them. But let’s aim with precision.
America First. Always!
Ken Blackwell is President of the Council for National Policy and a member of the Board of the Club For Growth.
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