An efficient market prevents any sort of death spiral. The objective of a tariff, just like the objective of regulation, is to encourage/discourage a certain practice but that doesn't mean there aren't ways around them if they become overly burdensome. For example, when environmental regulations become too burdensome, outsource the job to a place where those regulations aren't present. This is why environmental laws can easily put American companies at an extreme disadvantage and should be carefully considered. A lot of the higher costs you are worried about are self-inflicted because of all the ridiculous overhead required to run a business now a days.