When price tags speak, US should listen

The United States' trade policy is likely to take a sharp turn on Wednesday, which President Donald Trump has named "Liberation Day", the beginning of reciprocal tariffs on every country that taxes American goods. A day later, a sweeping 25 percent blanket tariff is expected to be imposed on all US imports, across every product, every port, and every sector.

The theory is simple: raise foreign prices high enough, and Americans will buy domestic products. But this isn't the 1950s. The logic doesn't hold in a globalized, interconnected, and precision-based economy.

More than 40 percent of US automobile components are imported. A 25 percent tariff doesn't protect US automakers — it puts additional pressures on them. Ford, GM and Tesla rely on global supply chains. Adding a tariff at that scale increases the cost of doing business in the US and pushes that cost onto consumers.