The Jackson School’s Blue Center for Global Strategic Assessment kicked off its Co-Lectures in the Theory and Practice of Statecraft series on January 23 with a discussion focused on industrial policy. The lecture was delivered by Amit Khandelwal, Dong-Soo Hahn Professor of Global Affairs and Economics at the Jackson School, and Josh Zoffer, a former Special Assistant to the President for economic policy and former Senior Advisor at the Department of the Treasury.

Zoffer applauded the idea that industrial policy is “back on the menu of things we think about.”

“Deindustrialization is a national security risk,” said Zoffer. “Manufacturing matters — for national security, for middle-class jobs, and for the U.S. economy. But in Trump’s first term, nobody specified what we should be manufacturing and what goods we should be putting tariffs on; it was always just ‘more.’ We need to be more strategic moving forward.”

Khandelwal and Zoffer spoke extensively about tariffs — an issue of growing importance since the re-election of President Donald Trump. Khandelwal discussed a paper he authored on the economic impact of the trade war between the U.S. and China, outlining how the U.S. raised tariffs on roughly $350 billion of imports from China, mainly appliances, solar panels, and steel. China retaliated by levying tariffs on about $100 billion of U.S. exports. Khandelwal noted that these measures generally resulted in modest wealth transfers from consumers to producers.

Both speakers agreed that, in the context of industrial policy, it is important for governments to be clear about their policy goals. “When we draw these sorts of lines, are we worried more about national security or is it about protectionism and lobbying by businesses?” asked Khandelwal.

Zoffer and Khandelwal also discussed sovereign wealth investment, export controls, and tax incentives, such as those created for electric vehicle manufacturing by the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Blue Center’s new lecture series pairs practitioners from government and industry with Yale professors to deliver joint, hour-long lectures on subjects of mutual expertise. Practitioners discuss events or policy initiatives in which they participated, and academics cover related insights or results generated by their research.

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