The end result is that it raised the price of foreign goods beyond the point at which people buy it without second thought.
The intent of tariffs is to promote the purchase of domestic product by making foreign product more expensive. This is sometimes necessary to prevent a foreign government dumping product so cheap that the domestic companies shut down, then the foreign governments stop subsidizing the product because there's no longer competition.
Tariffs are a defensive tactic to protect domestic industry, and in that regard that's what they're being used for here. You just have to do some serious mental gymnastics to justify this defense because it's pretty shitty. Our domestic companies should pay their fair share of taxes in the nations they operate, as well as here in the US.