(03-12-2018, 09:48 AM)JagNGeorgia Wrote: Just paying devils advocate, could this inspire foreign companies (that do a lot of US-specific business) to move into the US to avoid taxes?

Tariffs on imported steel raise the price of steel for every manufacturing plant in the United States that uses steel in their products.  It raises the cost of manufacturing in the United States.  So it will actually inspire foreign companies to move OUT of the US, because plants in the US will have to pay more for steel, while plants overseas will still get lower priced steel.  
 
For example, there are a lot of European and Asian car companies with manufacturing plants in the United States, but now those plants will have to pay more for steel than they used to.  This could conceivably induce them to move back overseas where they can get cheaper steel.   They have to calculate the benefit of having a factory in Tennessee or Alabama and paying a higher price for steel, vs having a plant somewhere else, paying less for steel, and importing the finished cars into the US.

It's the same with every manufacturer that uses steel in their products.  Now, not only is labor cheaper in other countries, raw materials are also cheaper in other countries.  That's even more of an inducement to move a manufacturing plant out of the United States.

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