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To repeat an old saying, insanity is repeating the same action while expecting a different outcome.

The question remains, however, will the new tariffs help decrease the trade deficit? Probably not. So-called trade remedies, like tariffs and duties, seemingly haven’t slowed down imports of steel. Consider, the Commerce report notes that as of February 15, the United States already had 169 antidumping and countervailing duty orders in place on steel, with 25 ongoing investigations.

The proposed Trump tariffs would be applied to all, on top of what is already in place, which from a national security point of view—i.e., the reason for these new tariffs—paints a confusing picture. For example, Russia has an antidumping and a countervailing duty imposed on its exports. That’s a total of two trade sanctions, which compares with 18 for South Korea and 12 for Taiwan and Japan. Appropriately, however, China is facing 29 sanctions, the most of any exporter.

Prior significant actions to address steel imports using quotas and/or tariffs were taken under various statutory authorities by President George W. Bush, President William J. Clinton (three times), President George H. W. Bush, President Ronald W. Reagan (three times), President James E. Carter (twice), and President Richard M. Nixon, all at lower levels of import penetration than the present level, which is greater than 30 percent.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/trumps...rticle/2011844