Free Trade, Fair Rules, and No Hidden Taxes

Why this matters

I believe in markets. When people are free to buy from whoever offers the best product at the best price, families stretch their paychecks further, businesses compete to get better, and the whole country gets richer. That’s not a partisan idea. For most of the last century, it was the heart of conservative economics.

Tariffs turn that upside down. A tariff is a tax on things Americans buy from other countries. It’s paid at the border by the American company bringing the goods in, and then passed down the line to the rest of us. Instead of customers deciding which products win, politicians do. That’s not capitalism. It’s central planning with a customs form.

Utah knows this story better than most. In 1930, Utah’s own Senator Reed Smoot co-wrote the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, which raised taxes on thousands of imports. Other countries struck back, trade collapsed, and the law is still taught as a lesson in how to make a depression worse. We shouldn’t have to learn it twice.

Who really pays

Supporters of tariffs often say foreign countries pay them. The evidence says otherwise. Researchers at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that about 90% of the cost of the 2025 tariffs fell on American consumers and businesses, with foreign sellers absorbing about 10%. The Yale Budget Lab estimates current tariffs cost the average household roughly $800 to $1,300 a year, and the cost falls hardest on families with the least to spare.

Tariffs were also supposed to bring back factory jobs. So far they haven’t. From April 2025 to February 2026, the country lost about 89,000 manufacturing jobs, as American factories paid more for the steel, aluminum, and parts they need. That matches what happened in the last trade war. A Federal Reserve study of the 2018 tariffs found that any jobs protected from imports were more than offset by higher costs for manufacturers and by other countries’ retaliation.

~90%of 2025 tariff costs paid by Americans, not foreign sellers (New York Fed)

89,000U.S. manufacturing jobs lost, April 2025 to February 2026

65%of Utah businesses surveyed said tariffs hurt their revenue

What it means for Utah

Trade is a big part of Utah’s economy. In 2025, Utah exported $22.4 billion in goods to 198 countries, supporting more than 73,000 jobs. Our biggest customers outside of gold refining are our neighbors, Mexico and Canada.

*About $8.1 billion of exports to the U.K. is gold sent for refining. Source: Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and Zions Bank, Utah International Trade 2025.

Utah businesses also buy from abroad, mostly computer parts, communications equipment, and metals they turn into finished products here. A tariff on those imports is a tax on Utah companies before they’ve made a single sale.

Mostly computer parts, communications equipment, and metals used by Utah companies. Source: Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute and Zions Bank, Utah International Trade 2025.

The damage has been real:

In a 2025 survey of 300 Utah businesses, 65% said tariffs had hurt their revenue. Among those that lost money, about one in five planned to freeze hiring and about one in five planned to pause or cancel investments.
Only about 5% had switched from foreign to American suppliers, because for many products there’s no American supplier to switch to.
Rio Tinto, the company that runs the Kennecott mine and smelter outside Salt Lake City, reported more than $1 billion in tariff costs across its business in 2025, tied to the 50% tariff on its aluminum from Canada.
Utah Iron suspended its mine in Iron County, citing tariff uncertainty, and Utah manufacturing lost about 1,500 jobs over the year.

Where things stand

In February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled that the emergency law the administration had used for most of its 2025 tariffs never gave the president that power. The administration replaced them with a temporary 10% tariff on nearly everything, which expired in July, and has since leaned on other trade laws, including steel, aluminum, auto, and lumber tariffs and new tariffs under the law used against China. Businesses have spent two years trying to plan around rules that change by the month.

My plan

1. Give the power back to Congress

The Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to tax imports. Over the decades, Congress handed much of that power away. I’d take it back:

Any tariff lasting more than 60 days needs a vote of Congress. A president could still act fast in a real emergency, but couldn’t put a lasting tax on American families without the people’s representatives voting for it.
Every tariff gets a public cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office before the vote: who pays, how much, and what it does to jobs.

Stable rules matter as much as low ones. A business can’t build a factory or sign a ten-year supply contract when the tax on its parts might change by a post on social media.

2. Be tough on China, where it counts

China cheats. It subsidizes its own companies, steals American technology, dumps underpriced steel to drive competitors out of business, and controls supply chains we can’t afford to depend on. Being pro-market doesn’t mean being naive.

I’d target China where national security or real cheating is at stake, not everywhere:

Advanced chips and critical minerals, where we can’t let a rival control our supply.
Defense and medical supply chains, so we never again run short of medicine or equipment because China cut us off.
Dumped and subsidized goods, like steel sold below cost, using the trade laws already built for exactly that.
Strong export controls to keep our most advanced technology out of the Chinese military’s hands.

Outside those areas, let Americans buy what they want. A tariff on Chinese toasters doesn’t make us safer. It just makes toast more expensive.

3. Stop taxing our friends

Canada, Mexico, Japan, the U.K., and Europe aren’t the problem. They’re our biggest customers and our best partners in standing up to China. I’d end the 50% steel and aluminum tariffs for close allies like Canada, Mexico, Japan, and Europe, while keeping anti-dumping action against China. American factories that use steel and aluminum employ far more people than the mills that make them, and they deserve to buy at a fair price.

4. Open new markets for Utah products

The best way to beat China is to out-trade it. Every market we open is one where American products win and Chinese products don’t.

New trade deals with allies, starting with the U.K., Japan, and India, to lower barriers for Utah exports like metals, medical devices, software, and food products.
Join the Pacific trade pact (CPTPP). America helped design it, then walked away in 2017. Our allies went ahead without us, and the U.K. has since joined. Joining would set the rules for trade in Asia on our terms instead of Beijing’s.

5. Help workers adjust, instead of taxing everyone

Trade makes the country richer overall, but that’s no comfort to a worker whose plant closes. That worker deserves real help, not a tariff that charges every family in America to protect one job at a cost far higher than the job pays.

Bring back trade adjustment help, which Congress let lapse in 2022, with retraining at community colleges and technical schools like Utah’s.
Wage insurance: if a worker who lost a job to trade takes a new one that pays less, help make up part of the difference for a couple of years, so they can get back to work quickly instead of waiting for a job that isn’t coming back.

What I won’t do

Tax American families with broad tariffs on everything they buy.
Punish our allies to score points in a trade fight.
Let any president impose lasting taxes without a vote of Congress, no matter which party holds the White House.
Go soft on China where our security is at stake.

Questions people ask

Don’t other countries charge tariffs on us?

Some do, and we should push hard to bring those down through trade deals. But hitting back with our own tariffs mostly taxes Americans. If another country taxes its own people, the answer isn’t to tax ours.

Don’t we need to protect American manufacturing?

Yes, and the best protection is a strong economy with cheap inputs, low energy costs, and skilled workers. Tariffs on steel raise costs for every American company that uses steel, and there are far more of those than steel mills. For industries tied to national security, I’d use targeted tools, not taxes on everything.

Isn’t tariff money a good way to pay for things?

It’s a tax, and it mostly falls on working families, who spend more of their income on goods. If Washington needs more revenue, it should be honest about it and raise it fairly, the way my tax plan lays out.

Is this just about opposing the current president?

No. Presidents of both parties have overused tariffs and executive power over trade, and some tariffs on China were kept by both parties. My rule would apply to every president, whoever’s in office.

The bottom line

Free markets made America the richest country in history. I’d trust American workers and businesses to compete, give Congress back its job of deciding taxes, stand up to China where it truly matters, and stop charging Utah families and businesses a hidden tax at the border. That’s what capitalism looks like.