Approaching Trade and Tariffs from a Progressive, Pro-worker Point of View
Updated August 1, 2025
Authors: Sara Steffens, Director of Worker Power, Congressional Progressive Caucus Center
As the Trump Administration continues to push ineffective tariff policies and ignite escalating trade wars, America’s working families are left hanging in the balance — caught between rising prices and a weakening job market, and worrying about what comes next.
It’s tempting to blame tariffs alone for the larger chaos of Trump’s mismanaged economy. But that critique ignores the fact that working families and communities throughout the United States have been harmed by decades of disastrous trade agreements designed to protect corporate interests. And it overlooks the hits economists know will result from Trump’s attacks on federal workers, campaign of terror on immigrant workers, slashing of investments in infrastructure and clean energy, and devastating cuts to Medicaid and other critical programs that support workers and the economy.
Now more than ever, pro-worker advocates and policymakers have a critical role in showing how progressive fair trade policies — including strategic, targeted tariffs — can help build a better future for workers and communities.
Here are six points of broad agreement among progressive, pro-worker advocates:
1. The status quo is not acceptable.
Corporate-dominated free-trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and its successor, the Trump-negotiated United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), have been a disaster for workers and communities. So-called “free trade” policy has failed to protect working families, devastated American communities centered around industrial production, and sparked a race to the bottom, accelerating economic inequality. Widening trade deficits with China and Mexico continue to suppress U.S. employment.
Since its passage, NAFTA has caused widespread wage suppression, job displacement, and job loss, including of higher-wage union jobs in manufacturing and related industries. Meanwhile, the move to grant China permanent access to our market without requiring progress on labor, environmental, human rights, and other standards led to the loss of 3.7 million jobs, nearly three million of which were in manufacturing. One study estimated that in a single year, Americans who were able to find new employment still suffered $37 billion in lost wages, as victims of offshoring moved into lower-paying work. The impacts of corporate-centered trade policy has impacted workers across lines of races, ages, and geography. The auto industry alone has lost 65 “big three” U.S. plants since the passage of NAFTA — and despite the USMCA’s promises to raise labor standards in Mexico, Mexican autoworkers still are paid one-tenth the wages of their U.S. counterparts.
Even where factories have not yet closed, the credible threat of offshoring has been used to undermine workers at the bargaining table, to bust unions, and created a challenge for trying to build power at the workplace and get an equitable share. Workers are right to critique the rigged trade deals of the past, and to expect better from their elected leaders.
2. Tariffs are not inherently good or bad.
Like taxes, tariffs are a tool — their effectiveness depends on the details of how they are used. It matters a lot how and when tariffs are applied, and whether their use is targeted to achieve a specific desired outcome.
Tariffs paid by importers can be an important and effective policy tool – but only if done right. Strategic and targeted tariffs, such as those conducted under Sections 232 and 301, can promote high labor standards, support environmental outcomes, build supply chain resilience, and even promote national security interests.
For workers in industries hurt by unfair trade practices, tariffs can be a lifeline to level the playing field, preserving domestic production and good jobs. But in efforts to grow the U.S. manufacturing sector, and compete in industries like next generation energy production, tariffs alone are not a panacea — they are just one element of a broader industrial policy strategy.
3. Rebuilding America’s manufacturing economy will take a lot more than tariffs alone – investments and incentives are key.
Experts agree: retaliatory tariffs that start and stop unpredictably are a disaster for our economy and communities. The resulting chaos discourages long-term business investments in opening new manufacturing facilities.
What works? Targeted, durable tariffs paired with industrial policies like public investments in science, research, domestic production, and infrastructure, regulation, and workforce development. Think of programs like the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These programs combined substantial public investment and tax incentives with pro-worker provisions that reward employers that use high-paid, union labor.
4. Manufacturing jobs are good jobs when they are union jobs.
Workers aren’t yearning for a return to turn-of-the century manufacturing sweatshops rife with injuries, child labor, poverty wages, and rampant exploitation. What communities want to revive are the high wages, good benefits, and safe working conditions made possible by decades of strong union advocacy in industries like auto manufacturing and steel production.
Reducing the credible threat of offshoring is only part of the picture in strengthening workers’ hands on the shop floor and at the bargaining table. Policymakers who truly want the best for workers pair economic development with policies that make it easier for all workers to form and join unions. This includes maintaining a functional and adequately funded National Labor Relations Board; funding and strengthening workplace safety, wage, and antidiscrimination enforcement; repealing the Trump Executive Order that stripped union protections from a million federal workers; and passing essential labor reforms including the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act.
5. What Trump is doing isn’t pro-worker—it’s a con. And his tariffs just won’t work the way he claims they will.
President Trump’s so-called “reciprocal” tariffs, as well as tariffs imposed on Canada and Mexico for non-trade purposes, fit right in with his authoritarian, anti-democratic approach to government. He is deliberately imposing chaos to enable secret backroom deals where he holds all the power—opening the door to even more of the corruption and cronyism that define his administration.
Instead of fighting for workers, Trump is rewarding loyalty. The wealthy and well-connected who bend the knee will get special treatment — as fossil fuel campaign donors and big tech already have. Small “Main Street” businesses with less power will lose out — and so will the workers and shoppers who depend on them.
When policies affect us all, working people, unions, and elected representatives deserve transparency and a seat at the table. Corporate CEOs should not have secret access to shape trade deals in ways that line their own pockets while hurting workers.
6. We need bold, progressive visions to rebuild worker power in manufacturing and throughout the U.S. economy.
Trade policy can be complex — but it is too important for progressives to sit out! We need bold, effective, progressive alternatives to the chaos Trump is creating under the false pretense of rebuilding manufacturing.
Working families must demand transparency in tariffs negotiations and USMCA reauthorization, to ensure new agreements put workers first, don’t undermine labor standards, and address the failures of past deals. And progressive trade policy must be part of a broader economic agenda that puts working families first.
Resources:
https://www.epi.org/publication/tariffs-everything-you-need-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask/