Trade barriers imposed by the Trump Administration threaten to diminish the benefits of international trade. AAF’s Director of Immigration and Trade Policy Jacqueline Varas has created a one-stop shop for you to keep up with President Trump’s trade actions and their impact on the U.S. economy.

Varas has updated her cost estimates with the president’s latest announcement that certain imports from China will be excluded from the tariffs, providing the most accurate and up-to-date picture of the tariffs’ impact. The president’s tariffs affect nearly $525 billion in imports at an additional consumer cost of over $115 billion annually. Further, retaliatory tariffs from our trading partners affect nearly $105 billion in U.S. exports.

While the de-escalation is beneficial, the tariffs as a whole only hurt the economy, Varas notes:

Trade barriers such as tariffs increase the cost of both consumer and producer goods and depress the economic benefits of competition, inhibiting economic growth. Research suggests that tariffs are directly responsible for inflation, depressed aggregate demand, less capital expenditures, and lower productivity levels. The president’s tariffs, when combined with corresponding retaliation, threaten nearly $630 billion of traded goods annually.

See Eye on Trade and Tariff Watch here.