The Trump administration announced a new wave of tariffs on Wednesday aimed at nearly all major trade partners of the US. This announcement came after 3 months of forward and backtracking by the Whitehouse over key imports.

At LMC the effects are limited for now, and most price changes in recent years have been due to other factors.

“While we have seen some cost increases in all those areas over the last few years due to inflation, we have not seen any impact due to tariffs so far,” said Bookstore Manager Robert Estrada.

“The supplies and clothes categories are where we expect to see price increases in the future due to the tariffs,” Estrada said. 

Similarly, the cafeteria has raised their prices on all egg products by $1 due to the shortages caused by an outbreak of avian flu. Suzy Lee, predicts that next semester prices will rise once more due to increasing costs of ingredients. 

“I can’t guarantee the prices won’t go up. Maybe, maybe not,” said Lee. “Probably around $0.75 to $1 next semester.”

However, it is too soon to know the effects of tariffs on food prices. 

“We’ve never had to raise prices in the one and a half years we have been open,” she said.

On a broader scale, however, prices may rise due to the blanket nature of the tariffs being proposed.

 “One of the immediate impacts we would see would be an increase in the price of intermediate goods,” said Christopher Casey, LMC alum and an Instructor of public administration and international affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship.

“Take lumber for example, an additional 25% tariff placed on lumber could potentially affect houses being built,” Casey said.

Should these tariffs stay in place, prices could potentially rise on all goods, regardless of whether or not they were made in the states, said Casey. 

“We already have additional tariffs that have been placed on steel and aluminum products, so the price of soda cans goes up, the price of soda goes up,” he said. “Cost of steel construction will go up, cars, even screws made in the United States, the steel being used is from overseas.”

 “Sometimes domestic producers even raise their prices to match their foreign competitors, because they can,” said Casey. “We saw this with washers and dryers during the first Trump admin, the price of washers went up, dryers followed because they are a companion good.”

  The community will feel the effects first at businesses that sell finished products like auto parts, hardware, and certain clothes.

Prices could increase further as the year goes on, said Michelle Leopold, owner of Pittsburg Ace on Leland and Railroad.

“We have to raise prices when half our inventory goes up 10, 20%,” said Leopold. “Our vendors said they are going to try and eat the cost for now, but we don’t know how long.”

Business leaders like Leopold worry about the uncertainty that these tariffs bring.

A shipping container laden with lawn furniture for Leopold’s store was ordered in China months ago before the latest tariffs were announced. By the time the container reached American shores, there was an additional 25% duty due for the products inside.

According to Leopold, around half of the inventory kept at Pittsburg Ace comes from China, Canada, and Mexico.

“We bought it and had it shipped over at one price, now we have to add 25% to that cost,”  she said. “You can’t plan around this sort of knee-jerk reaction.”

When this story was written, the most recent tariffs were not yet announced. On April 2 Trump unveiled a 10% tariff on almost all imported goods from 130 countries. 

The Trump admin also is set to impose increased rates on multiple large manufacturing hubs, like China (34%), Taiwan (32%), and Vietnam (46%).

The amount assigned to each country was based off of the trade deficit the US had with each country. Consequently, some smaller countries with a very narrow industry would suffer extreme penalties. Take Lesotho, a small country in southern Africa that sells the US diamonds, and because it is a poor country, does not buy much in return.

“Some countries might have diamonds to sell you but might not need anything in exchange,”  he said. “That’s sort of how it’s supposed to work. It may be that trade with other countries might cancel it out, maybe not.”

These tariffs are considered reciprocal by the administration, however this implies that trade should be perfectly balanced with other countries. However not all countries produce and consume the same amount, and therefore will have different needs.

Casey explained that it is unclear whether there is a singular end goal for the administration. But, he was very clear about the effects of these tariffs should they be implemented.

 “Americans will experience a decline in purchasing power,” he said. “Tariffs work like a tax on the importers, most often that cost is passed onto the end consumer.”