Ok, the question I have is, "How much manufacturing is actually coming back stateside? Is it all Trump hype?"
Is it really bringing investment into the Country, or is this just Trump's lies?
Will we be going back to a poor trading advantage.
Let's start with the idea that tariffs give you a trade advantage.
If you are trying to compete with other countries to make the same stuff, and you are already pretty close, small, targeted tariffs can help protect your domestic industry from being undercut. But that will only help your industry sell their products domestically; if American socks cost $2/pair to produce and socks made in Honduras cost $1.50 to produce, the rest of the world is going to buy Honduran socks at $1.50, while a U.S. tariff on Honduran socks that brings their U.S. price above $2 will make U.S.-produced socks attractive to U.S. consumers
only. If the U.S. sock producer can never get their costs low enough to compete with Honduran socks, what have you gained? U.S. consumers are basically subsidizing an uncompetitive industry by paying more and getting less. You have a domestic sock producer, which is good for any future national sock emergencies, but it comes at a cost (to the consumer).
The problem is, we don't produce the same stuff, for the most part. Economies find their niches. We are still the second largest exporter on the planet, so we were doing alright. We compete where we can compete, and leave things like textiles to countries with cheap labor.
The most galling example is aluminum. Canada is well-positioned to produce aluminum relatively inexpensively, we are not (their electricity is cheaper). Pre-trump, Canada was basically another state - a solid ally, a solid trading partner, and zero worries. We bought their aluminum and their lumber cheaply, almost as if it were produced in the states. And aluminum really matters - it affects tons of American manufacturing. There was simply no reason to do this. You want certain strategic capabilities within your domestic economy, but Canada was never going to stop selling us aluminum, or lumber.
If you just throw up large, across-the-board tariffs on all other countries, a la trump, all you are doing is making imports more expensive, and assuming reciprocal tariffs, you are making U.S. exports more expensive to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, the rest of the world trades amongst themselves tariff-free. Predictably, the value of the dollar relative to other currencies has decreased.
If you are worried about trade deficits, stop worrying, because they are not a problem. We get stuff, they get treasuries that just sit there doing nothing. (I can explain this at length if necessary.) It's far more important to maximize your exports, regardless of any imbalance, because more commerce is a good thing - more jobs, more income, etc. Imports also help - stuff is shipped around and sold in stores, all of which adds to GDP and income. And some imports are necessary for U.S. businesses to produce things. Lots of small businesses depend on imported machines and tools to make what they make.
Foreign investment has never been a problem. There are lots of car factories in the U.S., for instance. There were already sensible tariffs and other modifiers (countries all have their own safety standards, for instance) that made producing cars in the U.S. for the U.S. market a smart move. A weaker dollar just makes those factors less of a factor.
So, no, I can't think of any good these new tariffs are doing. There are far better, smarter ways of developing your manufacturing base or attracting investment, if that was ever the goal.