Link is here. A couple of things I talked about that didn't get included (you usually talk to these guys for 39 minutes and get a total of 30 seconds of air time- this one was better- 20 minutes of interview for 4 minutes of airtime!):

What is a tariff?: A tariff is just a tax paid on buying products made in another country. In this case, when you buy $100 of imported steel, you now pay another $25 to Washington in taxes. There are a few main effects: 1) Steel and other things with tariffs will cost more, since we import around 30% of our steel. So things made with steel will cost more. People in the US will be hurt when they buy cars, refrigerators, bridges, canned soup, anything with steel, screws, nails…

2) Domestic steel will cost relatively less than foreign steel. So US buyers of steel will want more from US suppliers, perhaps creating a few steel production jobs. However, there will also be jobs lost as people around the world buy fewer US cars, refrigerators, and other things.

3) Anyone could predict the trade war that raising tariffs will cause. So we help our steel industry a bit, hurt our manufacturing a lot, and now our farmers are getting caught in the crossfire.

Jobs of the future: Why protect steel and aluminum? These are not the jobs of the future, and are not our strength.

This is kind of an old story- we know what happens when we put a tariff on steel: The argument going back at least 30 years is that every country in the world can not only produce steel more cheaply than the US can- Say we can produce for $1,000 per ton, but China, Mexico, and Canada can produce it for $900. Not only that, but the (so the argument goes) governments of these countries all subsidize their steel- so it costs them $900 per ton to make, but they sell it to us for $800- their taxpayers making up the difference. So, if we have a choice of paying $1000 per ton for steel, or paying $800 per ton, and foreign counties are giving some of it away for free? Great! Let’s buy as much as we can and make a giant mountain of steel!

The last time we did this, in 2002 ( Bush put tariffs of 8%-30% on various types of steel) we saved around 1,700 jobs at a cost of $800,000 per job in higher prices to US consumers. Plus, we lost many 10’s of thousands of jobs in construction, manufacturing, auto and heavy equipment making, … So, take the "profits" from buying cheap steel from other countries, and pay the former steel workers $100,000 per year to volunteer part-time at local schools (or something).