If tariffs are supercharged like they are being suggested ....it will get even worse for U.S. "consumers"....(check that...citizens)
That is what antitrust is for...and that is how this was discovered. But some like the so-called "free market" of no regulation....
the free market has always been a myth. It's a changing landscape where a country does need to try to protect itself... but at the same time also recognize the financial penalties that can be placed on its own citizens by wielding tariff's haphazardly.
If you look at China right now they are producing EV with state funding that are being sold for maybe 1/3 to 1/4 of their actual value. If they were allowed to export those vehicles and sell them in the US it would severely undercut anything produced (or partially produced) in the country and sold.
This was pretty common place tactics by US companies in the US market in the 1800s and into the 1900s and why monopoly laws came into place domestically. You had companies willing to undercut and take losses in order to drive competitors out of business and then control the market.
At which point once they controlled the market they could reap the benefits and raise up prices significantly. China wants to do that at a global level.
But where 'haphazardly' comes into play. Saying a policy like "and we'll add 10% tariff to every product from China" is just ridiculous. That's just going to be passed onto US consumers. It's not high enough to change any plans to import those products to the US, it just means they likely get sold at a higher cost while exported. It also does nothing if it's a specific product or material that is being state subsidized and intended to try to disrupt the US market for that product.