“No they can’t. And what they could would cost significantly more. Read Adam Smith.”
OK, but he would not have been assuming that a country would handicap itself with far stricter regulations than other countries, then act bewildered when suppliers take their production elsewhere.
The way I see it, the breakdown of what people should hold is like this:
People who are okay with no minimum wage, some child-labor: deregulate The US so we can be competitive.
People who are okay with the above only when it takes place in China: come to terms with our jobs being outsourced forever.
People who are not okay with it anywhere: support high tariffs or even embargoes on countries that don’t agree with our labor laws.
If people were intellectually honest, I think almost everyone would fit into one of those three groups, but usually it isn’t so simple. I haven’t usually heard Trumpists railing against China’s labor practices. Their case for tariffs seems to be quasi-tribalistic and emotionalist most of the time.