President Donald Trump's reciprocal tariffs are set to take effect later today, but what exactly will those tariffs mean for you?
According to University of New Orleans economist Walter "Dub" Lane, those tariffs will hurt your pocketbook and the national economy.
"U. S. citizens are now paying the taxes," Lane said to WWL's Tommy Tucker. "The U. S. consumers will pay for it."
According to Lane, there's no evidence that the countries President Trump is targeting with his tariffs will pay the new taxes on goods imported into the United States. Lane said that American consumers will ultimately cover the costs of the tariffs through higher prices on foreign goods.
"Trump likes to lower taxes in general. He argues about that, but these are taxes he wants to raise," Lane said.
Lane says Trump may ultimately get what he wants: companies bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States.
But... Lane says those new jobs will come with a catch.
"Even if they're made in the U. S., consumers will pay more for the product because the reason it's not being made here right now is because it's cheaper somewhere else," Lane said. "If we raise taxes--tariffs--on them, then they'll file reciprocal tariffs on the products that we export to them. It'll cost us jobs here in the U. S. in those sectors. It'll create jobs in some areas and lose jobs in other areas. Whether it's a net gain or not is not clear."
In the long term, Lane says Trump's tariffs will do more harm than good to the U. S. economy.
"The big bank economists have increased the probability of recession," Lane said. "They doubled their probability that a recession will happen this year because of these tariffs."
Related
