Are tariffs the answer to save America’s declining aluminium industry?

On the banks of the Ohio River in a rural corner of one of America’s poorest states sit two factories, one next to the other. One is open. The other is shuttered. Both cut to the heart of what Donald Trump hopes he can do to transform America’s industrial base. Ravenswood, West Virginia, is a town built on aluminium. Since the 1950s, the wonder-metal has kept this place on the map. Once upon a time, the metal itself was produced here. A massive smelting plant dominated the skyline, and inside, huge furnaces, transforming American aluminium ore (alumina) into the metal…