It seems my copy and paste effort backfired.. I'll try again.
...he simultaneously scuttled it with 1000s of special interest loopholes and exemptions.
Do any examples of the exemptions and loopholes come to mind? The 10 types of steel covered sure riled a lot of people including the steelworkers union. It really riled the United Auto Workers because it forced the price of cars up which meant fewer sales and job layoffs.
Sure. Here's a huge one:
Under the plan Bush endorsed at an Oval Office meeting with advisers, steel imported from Canada and Mexico would be exempt from the duties, as would imports from developing countries such as Argentina, Thailand and Turkey. Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, Ukraine and Brazil would be among the nations subject to the tariffs.
Bush Settles On Tariff For Steel Imports
Of course, steel from Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, Brazil, etc. etc. aren't really penalized. That stuff merely gets shipped to one of the exempt nations first, before being re-exported to the United States duty free. (That's how the Cubans get around the sugar embargo. They ship it to Canada where it's dissolved in molasses, then shipped into the US where the sugar is re-extracted.)
Once you have such loopholes and exemptions, the tariffs become totally ineffective.
Bush is a fraud.