If you liked the steel and aluminum tax increase, you’ll love this tax increase!

During the meeting, which hasn’t been previously been reported, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer presented Trump with a package of tariffs that would target the equivalent of $30 billion a year in Chinese imports. In response, Trump urged Lighthizer to aim for an even bigger number — and he instructed administration officials to be ready for a formal announcement in the coming weeks, according to two people involved in the administration’s trade deliberations.

That sent senior officials at the White House, Treasury Department, State Department, Justice Department, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative and other key agencies scrambling this week to finalize the proposal. Although the details are still in flux, aides said the administration is considering tariffs on more than 100 Chinese products ranging from electronics and telecommunications equipment to furniture and toys.

If you plug it in or put batteries in it, it’s Made in China. And it looks like it’s going to cost more now.

If you missed my posts about why tariffs are bad, trade deficits are good, and we should unilaterally abolish all tariffs, now’s a good time to take a look. (Bastiat makes an appearance in the first post.) The short answer is: when we impose tariffs on China, we hurt ourselves and not China. As pervasive as these tariffs look to be, we’re going to be hurting ourselves a lot.

[Disclaimer]