Saying “We are being taken advantage of and I don’t like it,” President Trump has proposed new tariffs for all imported Chinese goods. This would be a mistake. Trump is right to worry about China’s illiberal and unfair trade practices, but retaliating against its state-directed economy with our own state direction of the economy is not the answer.

The Trump administration has already imposed tariffs on tens of billions of dollars of Chinese goods, but on Friday the president said he was “ready to go” with a massive increase.