This just doesn't work. The steel industry tried this and managed to get imported steel to just about stop. The estimate is that this saved about 5000 US jobs. Unfortunately, everyone who bought a car, refrigerator, or anything else made from steel paid a higher than necessary price because of it. The result is a transfer payment from all consumers to about 5000 steel workers.
Japanese steel was cheap because we bombed their capital stock into oblivion during WWII and then replaced it after the war. Yet, US producers tried to compete with factories still using 1890's technology. If you buy into the United Steel Workers argument that Japan was selling steel in the US below their cost, we should have bought all we could and driven the Japanese firms into bankruptcy. The arguments offered by the companies and the unions were specious and without merit, other than flag waving. The real motivation was to forestall modernization which would have lowered the demand for labor, but at a fairly high capital cost.
Tariffs and quotas simply don't work. They almost always benefit some small segment of the economy at the expense of some much large segment.
Not to mention that most of the USW membership works outside of the
steel making business So, they (Bush) actually hurt more steelworkers, than they(he) helped.Not only was the Jap,Korea , Dutch steel less expensive, the quality was better, more consistent .
The American market is large enough to support plenty of competition which will foster innovation and drive lower prices.
The tariffs worked well for this country for over 180 years. Since we've lowered them real wages have stagnated and numerous American industries have been off shored.
In fact, if you're not off-shoring, then it's probably only a matter of time, before your competitor does and drives you out of business.