I’m with The CS Monitor on this one.
The three-year, 30-percent tax was meant to bail out an ailing US industry that claimed damage from unfairly priced steel imports. While the administration generally supports free trade, the White House calculated that imposing the tariff would please voters and labor unions in steel-producing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
It’s blatant pandering to voters through the support of failing industry, not to mention grossly inefficient.