Signals are important to pay attention to. Its not a nice thing to be weak as a country. It's alright if you think you need this or that tariff right now to prop up this or that key industry, but what happens over time if you continuously slide ever weaker. Its just a warning sign that must be paid heed to. A strong sector shouldn't need a tariff to survive. For better or worse your IT/tech sector is one of the good examples of a strong sector, to extent that other countries are trying to shield themselves from it's success. That should be the aspiration for the industry, not living under tariffs forever.

Americans hate the current tech sector. Google and Microsoft are among the most hated companies in the US. International reach and adherence to European legal pressure has forced European laws loosely on Americans in the form of blocked sites and "accept cookie" banners.

I'd guess that most Americans don't care much if Europe perceives a strong posture. That's not a very American ideology. Many Americans would ask if Spain is in the UK. That's not an exaggeration. Americans couldn't care less about what Europe thinks.

It doesn't matter whether they like or hate the tech sector, I was just citing it as an example of an industry that is quite strong and doesn't need tariff protectionism.

I see. But in fact the tech industry is largely protected by the government too. Congress has been paying TSMC to manufacture chips in the US and they've made it illegal to export them or manufacture them elsewhere.

I hope it was clear I was talking about your software industry.

Also protected. Visa programs geared specifically to lower development costs by importing labor, and tax rules that largely cater to off shore support and software development. They aren't hated for no reason, let's say. Those aren't the only reasons, but, Congress is indeed protecting their largest backers which are, as we all know, giant software companies.