Former White House Trade Adviser: Tariffs to Persist Well Beyond Trump Term
The increase in U.S. tariffs enacted by the Trump administration is likely to persist "for several more administrations," according to former White House Trade Adviser Kelly Ann Shaw.
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Shaw, now a partner at Akin Gump, was speaking at an Oct. 14 event hosted by the Atlantic Council, where she said that having "baseline tariffs on U.S. imports" is a concept likely to remain after President Donald Trump. She said that Trump has ushered in a "generational shift in U.S. trade policy" where Americans believe that goods must be produced at home and "tariffs are a part of the story ... to incentivize certain types of production."
Shaw split the tariffs into a "baseline tariff, which is about the trade deficit," Section 232 tariffs "that are about trying to domesticate certain supply chains," and "foreign policy tariffs," such as those on Brazil and India. The foreign policy tariffs are "totally situational" and will change as "the facts on the ground change," she said, but the "other economic tariffs" will "be harder for a subsequent administration to unwind."