[Toddsterpatriot]

If U.S. demand exceeds U.S. production, then U.S. producers will be free to charge whatever they want competition free up to the tariffed import price or to the point where U.S. demand = U.S. supply, whichever comes first.

Would the same thing happen to any tariffed import?

[DannyTN]

"Would the same thing happen to any tariffed import?"

It really depends on the situation. Oil is a world commodity where world production is limited or at least had reached an equlibrium with price. THe current price is encouraging additional production as can be seen by the production in the U.S. Although that is also influenced by new technology.

What we want to do with an import tariff. Is...

• Bring industies back to the U.S. where we have lost them.
• Protect the industries we still have.
• Bring employment back up to full employment.
• Protect industries that are critical to our future. That includes high tech and military related industries.

But back to your question. Take an industry that has been completely devastated by free trade. Protect it with an import tariff.

• If the tariff is high enough, you'd expect to see domestic producers sprout up. Initially they are going to have a ceiling price of the tariffed world price. But as the number of domestic producers increases, you'd expect to see that price fall back through competition. If process improvements don't occur, I wouldn't expect them to ever be as cheap as the Chinese. Though through automation, we may achieve that. But that's okay, because we've put people that were unemployed back to work.
• And if the tariff isn't high enough, at least the U.S. gov't is reaping some revenues to help pay for the safety nets.

The problem with the Chinese senario in particular is that the communist Chinese government prevents the dollars from coming back and purchasing trade goods in return. Instead they focus the dollars into purchasing our debt and more companies to dismantle. That doesn't have an end game that ends well for the U.S. It's not a question of whether we address it or not. It's only a question of how weak do we become before we address it.