Trump’s Planned Tariffs Would Tax US Households, Economists Warn
The costs of the 10% minimum import duty would filter down to consumers.
If he returns to the White House, Donald Trump has pledged to enact a 10% across-the-board tariff on imports that he says will raise billions of dollars in revenue to pay for more tax cuts.
Yet mainstream economists say the GOP candidate’s second-term trade agenda—which could be boiled down to “tariffs on steroids,” as it also calls for increasing duties on Chinese-made goods to 60% or more—would essentially amount to a tax increase for American households. A recent report from the Peterson Institute for International Economics pegged the annual cost for the average middle-income family at $1,700, likening it to a sales tax. The Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, crunched the numbers on the minimum 10% tariff and came up with about $1,500 per household per year, including a $90 increase in the cost of food, $90 for prescription drugs and $220 for autos.