Commentary by Stephen Macaulay

On October 14 new tariffs went into effect.

On kitchen cabinets and vanities. Upholstered furniture.

As it says, in part, in a proclamation posted on the White House website September 29, 2025, “the Secretary” — as in Howard Lutnick — "found and advised me of his opinion that wood products are being imported into the United States in such quantities and under such circumstances as to threaten to impair the national security of the United States and provided recommendations for action under section 232 to adjust the imports of wood products so that such imports will not threaten to impair the national security of the United States.”

That’s right: the coffee-cup hutch and that couch are likely made of wood.

Somehow this is critical to our national defense.

So it gets a 25% tariff now. It will be 50% on January 1.

The proclamation goes on to say: “The Secretary also found that while the United States possesses ample raw materials and industrial capacity to meet domestic wood products demand, wood production in the United States remains underdeveloped. “

Wait a minute.

At first the issue was the national security threat posed by all of those vanities and sectional couches. 

Now it is clearly an industrial policy play: We have the goods, but the goods just aren’t being used to the extent that Trump and Lutnick think they should be.

Isn’t it possible that the products in question are “underdeveloped” because they aren’t economically viable?

In a story in The Washington Post about the imposition of the tariffs, John Dean, founder of Dean Cabinetry, a small business in Manchester, Connecticut, says, “My personal perspective is most small- and medium-sized businesses are trying to absorb those costs.”

First, again note that the tariffs aren’t being paid by another country. They are being paid for by the businesses that are importing these products. 

(Why are they importing them? It doesn’t take an Adam Smith to know that it makes economic sense.)

But one thing gets lost in the discussion of whether it is Dean Cabinetry or General Motors absorbing the costs of tariffs.

This means that these companies make less money. If they have less money, then they can’t afford as many employees as they otherwise might have on staff. If these people lose their jobs, then their ability to purchase things from shelves to Chevy Silverado trucks is going to be minimized. So the producers of the shelves and trucks are going to find themselves with less money, so they will need less people. And. . . .

While many of the tariffs that have been applied or threatened since Liberation Day are nonsensical, this one may reach the absolute height of absurdity.