That Could Be An Issue

As a profession, economists were long dishonest about the economic costs of tariffs.  They're a tool/tax like any other, with costs and, yes, potential benefits, and the economics costs/benefits of greater/fewer tariffs were often hugely overstated.

That isn't to say they're costless, but no taxes are. 

They did this because the real issue - trade *wars* - isn't neatly an issue for economists, but economists provided the "intellectual" cover for taking them off the table as much as possible.

I suppose Tom Friedman was more honest about this stuff than economists, whether or not he was correct about his free trade obsessions back in the day.

Anyway, trade wars are messy!

China’s Ministry of Finance put tariffs of 15 percent on imports of American chicken, wheat, corn and cotton and 10 percent tariffs on other foods, ranging from soybeans to dairy products. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce said 15 U.S. companies would no longer be allowed to buy products from China except with special permission, including Skydio, which is the largest American maker of drones and a supplier to the U.S. military and emergency services.

Lou Qinjian, a spokesman for China’s National People’s Congress, chastised the United States for violating the World Trade Organization’s free trade rules. “By imposing unilateral tariffs, the U.S. has violated W.T.O. rules and disrupted the security and stability of the global industrial and supply chains,” he said.