New Delhi, Feb. 27 -- US President Donald Trump's State of the Union address this week was quite predictable. His claim that this was "the golden age of America," for example, was par for the course, given his excesses of rhetoric on fuzzy matters like greatness.

What stood out was his defiance over his tariff policy just days after America's apex court struck down his 'reciprocal tariffs'. The president also chose to air a hope he'd expressed earlier: that tariff revenue would eventually replace the US system of federal income tax.

Whether or not the fiscal math allows it, it must not be taken seriously. Import levies are effectively a tax on domestic consumption. This makes it a regressive tax, since a rich consumer bears the same bur...