Tariffs and End Demand: When “Protection” Becomes the Problem

Swop Behind Bars
Jun 25
3 min read

Updated: Oct 10

The Policies Meant to Help Workers Are the Ones Shutting Them Out.

The Broken Promises of Protection

They were supposed to protect American jobs, revive domestic industry, and punish “bad actors” overseas.

Just slap a tax on imports, they said, and factories would roar back to life. Jobs would multiply. Wages would rise. The middle class would thrive. Spoiler alert: they didn’t.

Instead of recovery, we saw sluggish market growth. Supply chains became disrupted, leading to a rise in job precarity. Businesses chose not to invest or expand—they froze instead. Full-time roles disappeared, which were replaced by temporary contracts and gig work.

The Similarities Between Policies

That’s because this same sleight of hand shows up in the anti-trafficking world through End Demand initiatives. Both policies claim to protect the vulnerable. Both are framed as bold reforms. And both backfire—devastating the very people they claim to help.

Tariffs, in theory, are about patriotism. They aim to level the playing field by making imports more expensive. However, in practice, tariffs simply raise prices on materials, goods, and labor.

That uncertainty makes businesses hesitant. No one hires. No one invests. Workers lose out.

Examining End Demand Policies

Now let’s talk End Demand.

These policies aim to stop trafficking by criminalizing the buyers of sex rather than the workers. This might sound better than arresting sex workers, but let’s look closer. What really happens is this: clients vanish, but demand remains.

Work goes underground. Sex workers, particularly those already marginalized, are pushed into riskier conditions. They have fewer safety nets and less control over their circumstances.

Shared Failures of Tariffs and End Demand Policies

Tariffs and End Demand both rely on restriction disguised as reform.

They don’t fix root causes; they mask them.

They swap systemic investment for symbolic punishment.

What is their shared DNA?

Carceral logic dressed up as care.

We’ve seen this pattern before. Drug policy promised safer communities, yet it delivered mass incarceration. Immigration crackdowns claimed to protect jobs, while militarizing borders and splitting families. Again and again, we’re told we’re being protected. What we’re actually being is policed.

The Uncomfortable Reality of Broken Promises

Here’s the uncomfortable truth behind the promises:

What we’re told these policies will do rarely matches what they actually deliver.

We're promised protection for workers, but what we get is layoffs, unstable gig work, and a growing reliance on temp contracts

We're told justice will be served for survivors, yet they’re met with displacement, increased risk, and systemic erasure

We hear that bad actors will be held accountable, but in practice, it’s often the survivors and marginalized communities who end up criminalized for simply trying to survive

And as for economic revival? What we actually see are higher costs, stagnation, and less financial security for those who can least afford the fallout.

Tariffs didn’t bring jobs back.

End Demand didn’t end trafficking.

Both just pushed people out of sight and off the books. Because you can’t protect people by disappearing them.