Tariffs as a Tool of Political Leverage

Within weeks of assuming the presidency, Donald Trump has instituted tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. Trump has touted protectionism as a way of supporting American workers.

In this episode of Confronting Capitalism, Catalyst editor Vivek Chibber and Jacobin contributor Melissa Naschek discuss how nineteenth and twentieth-century protectionist trade policies helped build domestic manufacturing bases around the world, but why Trump's twenty-first century tariffs are very different. While decades of global free trade have contributed to deindustrialization, workers are not likely to benefit from Trump’s tariffs.

Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber is produced by Catalyst: A Journal of Theory and Strategy, and published by Jacobin. Music by Zonkey.