On the campaign trail, the Trump-Vance and Harris-Walz tickets are beginning to talk about trade policy. To win swing-state voters, both are pitching the fantasy that they will revive American manufacturing with tariffs.

Neither has said anything about opening foreign markets to U.S. exports.

After eight years of letting two administrations hide behind their tariff fantasies, it’s time for both Trump and Harris to answer questions about their strategies for putting U.S. trade policy back on the offensive.

To be clear, there’s little daylight between Trump and Harris on tariffs. In July, CNBC ran a headline warning if Trump wins, the U.S. “could go ‘nuclear’ on China trade,” whereas Harris would “remain tough.”

There’s no doubt that Trump’s proposed 10 percent across-the-board tariff and “matching tax,” along with a 60 percent tariff on Chinese imports, would harm the U.S. economy. But going by the last four years, it seems unlikely that Harris would use tariffs any more selectively.

The Biden administration left in place all of Trump’s China tariffs and slapped new ones on “green” products. Adding sprinkles to a cupcake doesn’t make the desert less fattening.

Turning to the offense, both tickets are also skeptical of “traditional” trade agreements. Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, tried his hand at product-specific (and therefore unambitious) bilateral deals with countries like China and Japan and replaced the........

© The Hill