Rick on CNN: Here come more Trump tariffs

Affordability, pshaw. Trump is hitting Americans with more import taxes right before an election. 😱

CNN invited me on air on July 21 to talk about Trump’s plan to impose new tariffs on imports from Canada and five dozen other countries. It’s really unbelievable. Bullet points below. Here’s the clip:

• The new Canada tariffs will be as high as 50% on large product categories including cars and car parts, dairy products, and alcohol.

• Trump said recently that he wanted to use tariffs to punish Canada for the smoke from Canadian wildfires that has fouled America’s air. But that’s not what this is. This is the continuation of a trade spat Trump started last year. Trump announced new tariffs on Canadian imports in 2025, including some that are still in effect. Canada responded with tariffs of its own on American products. Trump is now punishing Canada for retaliating.

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• The new Canada tariffs don’t go into effect until August 19, so there could be a deal that averts the tariffs before then. But Canada is no pushover. It has resisted making coercive deals with Trump as some other countries have.

• The Canada tariffs are based on a 1930 law that some experts think is defunct because other tariff laws passed by Congress superseded it. There will be lawsuits, for sure.

• Trump has a lot more tariffs in mind. After the Supreme Court ruled his emergency tariffs illegal this past February, Trump’s trade team set in motion the prep work necessary to impose other sorts of tariffs that might have a better chance of surviving legal challenges. Those take longer to impose, because the government has to go through a variety of rulemaking procedures. But those are nearing completion and there could soon be new taxes on imports from 60 countries, covering most of the imported products Americans purchase.

• The average tariff rate has jumped around during Trump’s second term, as tariffs went in and out of effect. But overall, the average import tax has risen from 2.5% when Trump took office to about 10%. The Yale Budget Lab estimates it will go to about 13% if the new tariffs Trump has propoposed go into effect.

• Trump’s tariffs cost Americans real money. The Budget Lab estimates the current cost of the tariffs is about $550 per household per year. If Trump imposes all the new tariffs he has threatened, the annual cost per household could hit about $1,100. That’s on top of higher prices for gas, energy, food and other things Americans are paying because of the Iran war Trump launched in February.

• Is Trump crazy to be doing this? You could sure make that case. Economists are nearly unanimous in saying that tariffs reduce growth and employment and produce little economic benefit except higher revenue for the government. Around 60% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s tariffs, with only 37% approving. It’s a maxim of politics that voters will punish you if you raise their taxes, especially if you do it right before an election. Yet that’s exactly what Trump is doing.

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