April 8, 2025

ALI Perspective

The White House Tariff announcements will have a devastating impact on the American economy, the global economy and the Post-War world trading order that has served America so well for decades.

 

The President’s “reciprocal” tariffs will trigger significant disruptions, distortions and unintended consequences, including millions of workers in the global south who will lose their jobs as companies shutter overseas plants, U.S. workers as companies stop or reduce production due to untenably high prices on inputs from abroad, and U.S. consumers who will see prices skyrocket. Since tariffs are a regressive tax, it is lower income U.S. consumers who will be hit the hardest. 

China will be beneficiary of this new trading order, making the case that it is a more reliable trading and investment partner than the U.S.

 

Click HERE to read ALI's full statement on the White House Tariff announcement

 

ICYMI

ALI hosted a webinar on USMCA and U.S. relations with Mexico and Canada, featuring Rep. Greg Stanton (AZ-4), Vanesa Rubio-Márquez of the London School of Economics, and Christopher Sands of the Wilson Center, moderated by Kellie Meiman Hock of McLarty Associates. Speakers highlighted how USMCA is a bipartisan achievement and emphasized that a strong North America is the best way to compete with China. They also raised concerns about Trump’s recent automotive tariffs, warning that they could upend the North American automotive supply chain and negatively impacting jobs in all three countries.

 

ALI hosted a robust conversation with Rep. Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA23) along with other numerous AI experts on a bipartisan approach to U.S. AI global leadership. They discussed the U.S. approach on sectoral regulation of AI use case outcomes, over the heavy-handed approach of regulating the AI tools themselves. Several participants reiterated the importance of U.S. leadership internationally and the need to work with allies to promote the healthy development of AI and necessary guardrails to prevent harm and regulatory fragmentation globally and in the U.S

Coming Up

ALI Summit: Meeting the Challenges of a New World Disorder with Senators Andy Kim & Elissa Slotkin, Reps. Don Beyer & Sara Jacobs, Amb. Nick Burns, Peter Harrell (Carnegie Endowment), Vivek Chilukuri (CNAS), Liz Economy (Hoover Institute) and more.


Discussions will include:

  • Global Impact of the WH tariff announcements
  • China and America Economic Security
  • American Global Leadership in an Age of Tariffs
  • Maintaining Alliances in a New Global Order



Email events@american-leadership.org for more information

What We're Reading

Foreign Policy: Trump's Wanton Tariffs Will Shatter the World Economy

"And no one in the White House has the slightest idea how economically disruptive—and politically destabilizing—the tariffs could be for all the developing countries that optimistically signed on to the U.S. vision of a rules-based global trading system. The last time the world’s major powers walked this far down the road to autarky was in the 1930s, and what followed shortly thereafter was the greatest conflagration the world has ever known. Things might turn out better this time. Or they might not."

CSIS: "Liberation Day" Tariffs Explained

 

"The administration, it seems, wants to claim both economic benefits and a fiscal windfall. But, like any tax, with tariffs, you cannot have both. And indeed, not only are we already seeing stock market drops, we are also seeing U.S. manufacturing job layoffs from Cleveland Cliffs, Stellantis, and Whirlpool, all presumably because of tariff-induced higher input costs and reduced U.S. demand. In the end, which goal is allowed to fail will tell us more than which was declared to matter."

NYT: Lesotho, a Small African Nation, Expects a Big Hit From Trump’s Tariffs - The New York Times



The nation that the Trump administration slapped with the heftiest tariff this week is a small, rural, landlocked country in southern Africa that is among the world’s poorest. Lesotho, which makes denim that goes into American-branded jeans, was hit with a 50 percent tariff.

 
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