If it's known to be lower quality, then prices should take care of that. I don't think the protectionist case for tariffs makes much sense. In aggregate, the "protected" country ends up being poorer.

The Optimal Tariff Theory case for tariffs, which is that large consumer economies can shift the tax incidence to foreigners, is at least a strong argument for preferring tariffs over other taxes.

Undisciplined

econ

The Madness of Presidential Tariffs

I will say that the steel tariffs (maybe the aluminum) do have some actual standing. The US has been flooded with cheap steel from Japan (who was also tariffed) and steel that was coming from Asia to Canada and then into the US. We have seen the steel industry struggle with US Steel trying to sell itself to one of Japan's huge conglomerates. Given we have found actual issues with some of this cheap imported steel (not as strong as it claims to be) tariffs to protect the US industry does at least have some logic. 