There has actually been an attempt to find another economist who likes the idea of serious tariffs and even Navarro himself wasn't able to point to one.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and others have argued that although the problems are serious, tariffs are the wrong response.
Last week, efforts to complete what is known as the Doha round of trade talks collapsed in acrimony, dealing a serious blow to tariff reduction.
Second, Japan may not make any serious cuts to tariffs that protect its farmers.
It certainly charges like a serious restaurant, levying a tariff of $35 for a lunchtime burger that's not Kobe and doesn't ooze foie gras.
Look up the criminal injuries compensation tariff for serious brain damage "with no useful physical movement, significant effect on the senses … little or no meaningful response to the environment, little or no language function, double incontinence and the need for full-time nursing care".
However, the scheme has serious flaws in national tariff calculation: inlier calculation is normative, and the "one hospital" model causes cost bias, adjustment and representativeness issues.
But any breakthrough on agriculture must be matched with serious proposals on industrial tariffs, services and other issues before a framework can be reached.
American corporations could be put at a serious disadvantage — paying higher tariffs, for instance, than European and Asian competitors, which would immediately enjoy the benefits of Russia's new status.
If the steel tariffs bring serious negotiations on all these matters, the winners will be all those who would be helped by open markets and expanded world economic activity, and that includes our European friends.
