Why are tariffs a bad thing? Better than the income tax. What’s the aversion to tariff in the USA? THE REST OFF THE WORLD USES/HAS THEM.
Agreed - tariffs are used all over. Trade agreements between two or more countries are nothing but pre-agreed tariff and quota levels on a huge range of products. If we wanted true free trade we would have no trade agreements at all. There definitely is no such thing as a "free trade agreement."
The only issue with tactically applied tariffs is that the trade environment can change unpredictably for producers, importers and exporters which can perturb their businesses, employees and markets.