EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to slap new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, the three largest trading partners of the United States.

On Monday, Trump announced he would impose a 25% fee on imports from Mexico and Canada and add an additional 10% to existing tariffs on Chinese imports. 

The tariffs were a campaign promise for Trump, who maintains the countries are not doing enough to stop illegal immigration and drug trafficking. 

“Inside the Issues” host Amrit Singh was joined by Bethany McLean, business journalist and Vanity Fair contributing editor, for a wide-ranging discussion on tariffs, including how they work, and their advantages and disadvantages.  

“The basic idea is a payment that would be levied on goods coming into the United States,” he said. “That’s the additional tax that the manufacture bringing those goods into the country would have to pay. The conventional thinking about economists is that companies pass those costs onto consumers.” 

Tariffs and their impacts are often the subject of a debate, which McLean noted is one that goes back to the country’s founding.   

“America actually has a complicated and contentious history with tariffs,” said McLean. “Going back to the founding of the country, there was a battle between tariffs between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson.”

McLean also spoke on the policy implication of Trump’s plan to enact tariffs on imports from Mexico with the goal of stemming illegal immigration and fentanyl production. 

“While tariffs might make sense, they have to be carefully used in conjunction with other strategies,” McLean said. “You have to be sure that everything else is aligned, and if the rest of your policies aren’t, tariffs alone can end up doing more harm than good.”

Watch the full interview with Bethany McLean in the video above.