The Trade Deficit with China indicates that we are already LOSING a trade war that's facilitated by the Bush Administration's inane quest for zero tariffs. We should immediately enact a uniform, flat-rate tariff of 10~15% on ALL imported goods, regardless of country of origin.
The First Federal Revenue Law
On April 8, James Madison, once again a congressman from Virginia, addressed the House. He went right to the point. Congress, he said, must "remedy the evil" of "the deficiency in our Treasury." He argued that "[a] national revenue must be obtained," but not in a way "oppressive to our constituents." He then proposed that the House adopt legislation, virtually identical to the unimplemented Confederation tariff, imposing a five-percent tariff on all imports....
...A single, uniform tariff, he insisted, had two advantages. First, it could be imposed quickly, which was important because "the prospect of our harvest from the Spring importations is daily vanishing." Second, it was consistent with the principles of free trade ("commercial shackles," he said, "are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic")
'regardless of country of origin' ?? What incentive would such a strategy have to make China behave any differently?