Auto Tariffs Mean Lost Jobs: Plenty of Trump voters will suffer with a 25% tax on imports

WSJ editorial.

"The Trade Partnership’s policy brief, “An Accident Waiting to Happen?,” estimates the net impact on U.S. jobs over one to three years from a 25% tariff “on U.S. imports from all countries of automobiles, SUVs, light trucks, other vehicles and parts.” It finds that U.S. auto and auto-parts workers would gain as many as 92,400 jobs as firms adjust to the new rules. Complementary industries that add jobs due to the tariffs could take the total number of new employment opportunities to 135,120.

That sounds swell until you learn that far more jobs—292,411—would be lost as the effect of the duties ripples across the economy. That means a net job loss of some 157,000, “including 45,450 manufacturing jobs in non-automotive sectors.”

The report concludes that “about three jobs would be lost elsewhere in the economy for every U.S. motor vehicle job gained” and “GDP would decline by 0.1 percent as higher costs, net job losses, and declines in producer and consumer spending power work their ways through the economy.”"