U.S. face high costs if Trump’s proposed tariffs take effect

Edwin J. Viera | Public News Service
A Tax Foundation report estimated President Donald Trump's proposed tariffs would cost the U.S. 142,000 full-time jobs. Overall, it says the policies would add up to $79 billion in tariffs. Photo Credit: Adobe Stock

New research details the major potential changes for the nation if President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs take effect.

A Tax Foundation report found tariffs Trump implemented in his first term have kept prices “unreasonably high,” tariffs former President Joe Biden maintained.

In an example,  a report from the Urban Institute’s Tax Policy Center and the Brookings Institution predicts the proposed tariffs would have a 5% to 10% effect on New York’s gross domestic product.

Melinda St. Louis, director of Global Trade Watch for the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, doesn’t think President Trump is using tariffs effectively.

“Tariffs can play a constructive role in protecting U.S. jobs and enforcing labor and environmental standards when they’re part of a strategic industrial policy,” St. Louis acknowledged. “But Trump is not doing that. His approach is to use tariffs to bully countries.”

She pointed out the tariffs threatened against Mexico and Canada would have significant effects because they are some of the largest importers of U.S. goods. Throughout his campaign, Donald Trump proposed 25% tariffs on both countries. The Tax Foundation’s report estimates such tariffs, along with a 10% tariff on Chinese goods, would cut economic output and raise U.S. taxes by more than $1 trillion in the next decade.

While some tariffs are being used to bolster Trump’s “America First” agenda, others are being used to handle immigration. He threatened 25% tariffs on Columbia so the country would accept two military planes full of migrants. St. Louis argued tariffs should be paired with strategic industrial policy.

“You must invest in U.S. manufacturing at the same time that you are imposing, potentially, tariffs to address unfair trade practices and punish bad corporate behavior that’s pushing a race to the bottom, in terms of labor and environmental conditions,” St. Louis contended.

The tariff threats come as the President has also paused federal funding and loans for some programs, which is expected to restrict projects funded by the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Research showed it could affect manufacturing jobs and cost America a chance at energy independence, even as conservative states are seeing the greatest benefits from the funding.

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