For months, economic commentators have parroted the Harris campaign’s misleading narrative that the tariffs are a “sales tax.” Like most economists’ preconceptions, this view is fundamentally incorrect. Reflexive opposition to tariffs represents political ideology and advocacy, not economic thinking.

The truth is that tariffs have a long and storied history both as a revenue-generating tool and as a way to protect strategically important industries in the United States President-elect Donald Trump added a third leg to the stool: tariffs as a negotiating tool with our trading partners.

Before the 16th Amendment, which authorized the personal income tax, tariffs were one of the primary sources of funding for the federal government. Our first Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, was also America’s first supporter of tariffs. But after the Second World War, a consensus formed around multilateral tariff disarmament. The promise of this new consensus on free trade was that any economic disruption caused by globalization would be offset by increased prosperity for all. In the United States in particular, this belief was accompanied by the belief that free trade would lead to political freedom in other countries like the United States. Communist China. None of these predictions turned out to be correct.

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The United States has opened its markets to the world, but China the resulting economic growth only consolidated the grip of a despotic regime. In the meantime, we have emptied our manufacturing base, leaving a trail of devastation across swaths of our nation’s heartland. We have also created key national security vulnerabilities. The truth is that other countries have taken advantage of America’s openness for too long, because we allowed them to. Customs tariffs are a way to finally defend Americans.

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Tariffs are also a useful tool to achieve the president’s goals foreign policy goals. Whether it’s getting allies to spend more on their own defense, opening foreign markets to U.S. exports, ensuring cooperation to end illegal immigration and ban fentanyl trafficking, or Yet to deter military aggression, tariffs can play a central role.

Finally, tariffs can generate significant revenue. Last year, we imported some $3.1 trillion worth of goods. We are the world’s largest importer and therefore the most important market for other countries’ exports. Our size gives us market power and the ability to dictate terms – other countries need us more than we need them. We just have to use this power.

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Critics of the tariffs say they will raise the prices Americans pay for imported goods. Such was, reduced to absurdity, the The Harris campaign’s “sales tax” argument. But the facts are against it. Tariffs from President Trump’s first term did not raise prices for affected products, despite predictions at the time that the tariffs would prove inflationary. Indeed, not only was there no discernible increase in inflation during the latest round of tariffs, but the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation actually declined.

Used strategically, tariffs can increase revenue at the Treasury, encourage businesses to restore production and reduce our dependence on the industrial production of strategic rivals.

For too long, conventional wisdom has rejected the use of customs duties as an economic and foreign policy tool. However, like Alexander Hamilton, we should not be afraid to use the power of tariffs to improve the livelihoods of American families and businesses.

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