As president, Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on foreign steel, which hurt Clips & Clamps Industries, a Michigan auto supplier -- raising its materials prices, making it harder to compete with overseas rivals and costing it several contracts.
Jeff Aznavorian, the company president, thought he might enjoy relief once Joe Biden entered the White House. Instead, Biden largely preserved Trump's tariffs -- on steel, aluminum and a mass of goods from China.
"It was a little surprising that an ideologically different administration would keep the policies so intact," Aznavorian said.
Trump and Biden agree on essentially nothing, from taxes to immigration. Yet on trade, they have embraced surprisingly similar approaches. Which means that whether Biden or Trump wins the presidency, the United States seems poised to maintain a protectionist trade policy.
Last week, in fact, Biden announced some new tariffs, on Chinese electric vehicles, advanced batteries and other products, that he said would keep Beijing from flooding the United States with cheap imports.
The protectionist tilt reflects the widespread view that opening the nation to more imports -- especially from China -- wiped out American manufacturing jobs, a potent topic in the Midwestern industrial states that will likely decide who wins the White House.
