This is CBS Eye on the World.

Here's John Batchelor.

The Financial Times, the headline of the moment.

EU retaliates after Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs take effect, subhead, countermeasures beginning

in April will target up to 26 billion euros of U.S. goods, Brussels says.

I welcome David Ibert.

He is helping me understand what we're witnessing in this headline.

It's called reciprocal tariffs.

And that is something that economists, such as David, understand completely. He's a senior

research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. David, a very good evening to you.

Reciprocal tariffs. I believe I just read a headline that demonstrates, what is the

theory behind reciprocal tariffs? Good evening to you. Well, good evening to you too, John.

Thanks so much for having me today. So the idea behind reciprocal tariffs is sort of a tit for tat

strategy. You know, if you tariff us, we're going to tariff you. And the hope is that by

doing so, we can convince other countries to lower their trade barriers against us and allow us

to keep our trade barriers against them quite low. Having low barriers to trade is clearly a good

thing for the American people, and it's clearly a good

thing for the world. It allows for better access for everyone, for all the goods and services

produced all around the world. The question before us, though, is whether reciprocal tariffs will

lead to that goal of lowering trade barriers for everyone, or will they

just double down on protectionist and destructive policies?

Tariffs, in the beginning, when the Republic put itself together, that was a major source

...