Kolb writes op-ed about steel tariffs and trade policy in The Post and Courier

In an opinion piece appearing in The Post and Courier, Furman University’s Ken Kolb wrote about tariffs and what they should and should not be based on. In “Steel trade and tax policy should be based on evidence, not nostalgia,” Kolb, professor and chair of the Sociology Department, cited a recent visit by Vice President J.D. Vance to a South Carolina steel mill. Vance used the venue draw attention to how tariffs might usher in a “great American comeback” in terms of stateside manufacturing and jobs.

Comparing the South Carolina “mini mill” to mills operating post-WWII, Kolb explained that production methods and the number of people needed to operate today’s mills are vastly different than the mill in which Vance’s grandfather worked for decades beginning in the 1950s in Ohio. Kolb noted that about 70% of U.S. steel is produced more cleanly and efficiently by smaller mills operating at roughly 80% capacity, and if the U.S. wanted to produce all the steel it needed, it could. “Tariffs make foreign steel more expensive; they don’t make domestic steel cheaper. When the average price of steel rises, businesses purchase less of it; construction projects get put on hold, plant expansions get delayed. It’s nothing personal; it’s just supply and demand,” he wrote.

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