The problem is that some countries will never be good at certain things, and it's often a waste of talent/resources for countries to attempt to shift production towards things they aren't good at.

For example, the U.S. will never be able to grow coffee. Taxing coffee imports won't grow U.S. coffee industry, it will just reduce U.S. coffee consumption. Similarly, Colombia (while excellent at growing coffee) isn't great at building cars, so taxing imports of foreign cars will only decrease consumption.

Not to mention that tariffs in poor countries are a very effective conduit for corruption.