U.S. imposes new tariffs on imported goods

On April 2, the Trump administration announced a new “reciprocal tariff” policy, imposing a 10% tax on nearly all imported goods and up to 50% tariffs on 57 countries with trade surpluses.

Tariffs—taxes on imported goods—are often used to protect domestic industries by making foreign products more expensive. But while the goal is to boost American manufacturing, these policies can have unintended consequences, such as inflation or trade tensions.

“The main impact these tariffs have is definitely over expensive foreign products like car companies,” junior Ayub Ziaddiun said. “I know Germany is struggling a lot with their companies like Mercedes-Benz because with a 25% tariff, they need to make a decision—either to bite the bullet and make a cost change in order to sell it at the same price in America, or they have to raise the price in order to keep the same revenues over in America. They have to decide between the benefit of the person or the benefit of the company.”

According to U.S. Government teacher Adam Barclay, recent tariffs reflect trade imbalances with countries like Canada, Mexico, and China.

“[Canada has] a $50 billion trade surplus,” Barclay said. “They have certain tariffs on us for butter, milk, timber. Essentially, what’s happening is they’re making a lot of money off of us, but we’re not making anything off of them.” 

BBC reported that  President Donald Trump believes the U.S. has been taken advantage of by countries with trade surpluses, calling them “cheaters” and saying they’ve “pillaged” the American economy. The tariffs, he argues, are a way to reduce the gap between the value of goods the U.S. imports and exports.

“Mexico has a $170 billion trade surplus with us, and one of the reasons [for this] is because China sends their goods into Mexico instead of sending them here,” Barclay said. “If they send them here, we tariff them, so China sends raw materials, [and] Mexico puts those products together. So, Mexico makes money, China makes money—but we don’t.”

Critics argue that tariffs can backfire, especially when manufacturing depends on imported parts. Higher costs for companies often translate to higher prices for consumers.

“For example, we might wanna make cars here, but a lot of the car parts come from Canada,” Barclay said. “If you put a tariff on that, that’s gonna lead to the car prices going up, and that hurts us because we have to go pay for that. It can cause prices to go up because if you charge a tariff to a company, they don’t pay it, they just put it under the price of their goods, and then we pay it.” 

Despite the risks, supporters argue that the tariffs will be beneficial to the U.S.

“[The tariffs are] supposed to basically pump up American businesses to where Americans go buy American products,” Barclay said. “Then you have more manufacturing, you have more jobs, and that’s how it’s supposed to work. But the problem is, a lot of the car parts that go into, [for example], Ford cars are from other countries that have tariffs, so they’re gonna still have a price put on the Ford, so there’s a risk involved.”

Barclay added that any benefits might not be immediate. 

“Right at the beginning, it is probably gonna hurt a little bit—you’ll have higher prices,” Barclay said. “But the point of it is to get more manufacturing and move back to the United States.”