At first glance,

tariffs appear to be a shield. They increase the price of foreign goods, which provides domestic industries with breathing space to expand without foreign competition in the form of cheaper foreign products. For instance, a steel mill would receive some breathing room if foreign steel suddenly becomes higher priced. The workers feel more secure, and the industry can perhaps be given a second chance to modernize.

But over time,

tariffs can subtly bite back. Shoppers pay more, small businesses that use imported parts hurt, and other nations retaliate with tariffs of their own. That chain can damage exporters—farmers, for example, tend to suffer greatly when markets abroad contract. In the long term, industries “protected” by tariffs often become less competitive on the world stage because they don’t get pushed hard enough to innovate.

therefore,

tariffs can be a good short-term shield, but if applied for extended periods, they could become a crutch. The equilibrium essentially lies in whether governments make good use of that “protected time” and not simply maintain tariffs perpetually.