Here’s why you may be paying Trump’s tariffs

US retailers’ alliance with foreign suppliers could potentially result in higher prices for a variety of products due to Donald Trump’s victory within the White House and his proposed import tariffs, reports

In a report released November 4 by the National Retail Federation (NRF), American consumers I can expect lose $46 billion to $78 billion in purchasing power over the following few years on products similar to clothing, toys, furniture, home appliances, footwear and travel items as a consequence of tariffs. NRF Vice President for Supply Chain and Customs Policy Jonathan Gold issued an announcement explaining what the tariff is and the way it affects firms. “A tariff is a tax paid by the U.S. importer, not the foreign country or exporter. This tax will ultimately come out of consumers’ pockets in the shape of upper prices,” Gold said.

“Retailers rely heavily on imported products and manufacturing components so they can offer their customers a variety of products at affordable prices.”

Examples include a $50 pair of sneakers that can go from $59 to $64, or a $2,000 mattress and box spring set for $2,190.

The introduction of tariffs isn’t Trump’s first proposal. During his first term, his administration set a goal of imposing tariffs of as much as 25% on greater than $360 billion in Chinese products. The Biden-Harris administration kept most of those tariffs and added additional ones on Chinese electric cars and microchips.

Under Trump and Vance, the team plans to impose a 60% tax on Chinese-made goods and a 10-20% tax on $3 trillion value of foreign goods imported by the U.S. annually. During the campaign, Trump promised to scale back inflation, but US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that because the tariffs would be mostly paid, they might only increase them. “A consistent theoretical and empirical finding in economics is that domestic consumers and domestic firms bear the brunt of tariffs, not the foreign country,” the Yale University Budget Laboratory said in a mid-October 2024 evaluation.

Trump, nonetheless, argues that the tariffs will profit the U.S. economy in some ways, similar to encouraging countries to barter more successful trade deals and limiting other countries from “dumping” their products within the U.S. at below-market prices, he says. Another reason is to motivate nations to scale back customs duties on shipments to their countries from the USA

The four-time impeached president-elect has accused other countries of imposing much higher tariffs on imports than the United States, and has also criticized trade agreements – similar to NAFTA – which have led to more foreign imports into the country than US exports to other countries. In 2020, the Trump administration replaced NAFTA with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

For now, it’s unclear when or if the brand new administration will begin tightening tariffs, as the method requires laws to extend fees, which could take as much as a yr.