President Donald Trump has announced his plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on all imported goods. This is on top of his plan to put an additional 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada, which was initially supposed to be implemented on Feb. 2, 2025, but was pushed back a month after the countries agreed to work on an a plan to improve border security.
Trump did, however, already impose a 10% tariff on Chinese imports as no agreement was made.
Nations across the globe are planning their next actions, with many of them wanting to fire back with higher tariffs on U.S. goods.
The onslaught of tariffs is a strategy that Trump is using to make Canada, Mexico and China crack down on illegal immigrants and drugs being brought into the U.S. As well as promote domestic production, not only by encouraging citizens to shop U.S. manufactures but also encourage foreign manufacturers to move their production to the U.S.
However, his constantly changing and confusing plan to create as many tariffs as possible will ultimately hurt everyday people and their wallets the most.
During Trump’s presidential campaign, he showed his lack of understanding of what tariffs are when he stated, “A lot of people like to say, ‘Oh, it’s a tax on us.’ No, no, no, it’s a tax on a foreign country.”
A tariff is a tax on goods that are imported from a foreign country, so the importers of the goods are the ones who initially pay for the tariff. To compensate and keep making money, the importers then sell the item for a higher price to consumers. Ultimately, it is not the foreign countries’ governments nor the foreign manufacturer who pays for tariffs, but the consumer.
Imported goods make up a significant portion of the U.S. market. Mexico supplies a large amount of our produce, liquor and auto parts. China exports many of its computer chips, textiles and plastics to the U.S. Not to mention Canada, which provides a lot of our lumber and about 60% of our crude oil, meaning that gas prices will also likely go up.
This is not including the incredibly long list of products that will be hit with reciprocal tariffs, especially from places like Thailand and India, who have much higher tariffs on average.
Poorer countries also tend to impose higher tariffs as a tool to boost and protect their economy as they often export much more than they import.
If Trump were to put reciprocal tariffs on these countries, not only will it make products in the U.S. much more expensive, but could also throw the foreign countries economy off, affecting many of the citizens living in them.
His plan might not even help to promote domestic production.
Even if foreign manufacturers were to move operations into the U.S., that process would take years to fulfill, and during that time, consumers will still be paying more and production will likely slow.
It is also unrealistic to expect U.S. citizens to switch from imported to domestic goods. A lot of the goods people buy in the U.S. are imported and there may be very little domestic replacements for those products. Imported products also tend to be more affordable than their domestic counterparts.
The tariffs that Trump is trying to implement not only goes back on his promises to lower food prices but will put additional financial burden on his citizens.
Hilary Valdez can be reached at [email protected].