Most of the industries lost were not EPA’d out of existence. They were lost due to the wage differential between us and China.
The tarriffs which were lowered in the 1960’s. They served our country well. Right now an importer pays on average 1%, much much less than a domestic producer pays in employment related taxes.
So a tariff can help equalize the tax burden between foreign and domestic producers, offset the wage differential, and even help pay for the costs of having unemployed in the US.
Our founding fathers viewed tariffs as being a tax on foreigners wanting to do business in our markets.
There may be some industries that are so toxic that we want to leave them in China or other third world countries.
Yes, this is true - but now they cannot be established because of the EPA. To give you an example of how bad it is, the EPA now considers steam and water runoff to be a pollutant or toxic waste when emitted in the course of manufacturing anything. I’m talking about just pure H2O with nothing else in it.
Why would any manufacturers want to come back to the U.S. with that insane kind of regulations? Remember, the more money your company has or the larger it is, the more the EPA will extort.