On occasion, the US government steps in and issues a tariff on a particular product or raw material being imported into the US

Tariffs have been imposed now and then by many countries in order to protect their domestic industries, especially the key industries such as steel in the above mentioned scenario, primarily due to the fact that domestic companies are not able to withstand the competition from overseas companies who score in terms of efficiency or quality or both. Thus, governments use this tool to protect their domestic industries who are not able to reduce their cost or enhance their efficiencies to compete against overseas players. Import tariffs protect the onslaught from such overseas players.

Well, this is not the best policy to protect American workers and free trade should be in place and tariff should be abolished as it will benefit the end users or consumers in terms of better products and lower costs. The perfect solution will be to reduce the cost of operations of domestic companies and bring them on par with overseas companies in terms of quality and efficiency so that they can compete directly and bring benefits to the consumers as well. However, tariff is a resort which most government look forward to until their own domestic companies raise their efficiency and productivity standards.