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Monday, December 30, 2019

Federal Reserve study finds Trump tariffs have backfired

"President Donald Trump’s strategy to use import tariffs to protect and boost U.S. manufacturers backfired and led to job losses and higher prices, according to a Federal Reserve study" released Dec. 23, Greg Robb reports for MarketWatch.

Over the past two years, Trump has imposed tariffs on imported goods from China in an effort to boost the U.S. manufacturing sector and protect it from what he deems unfair trade practices. And while the tariffs succeeded in reducing domestic competition in some industries, increasing input costs and retaliatory tariffs more than offset that benefit, Robb reports. 

"Tit-for-tat trade retaliation is an idea best relegated to the past, given the presence of globally interconnected supply chains, the Fed researchers found," Robb reports. "The top 10 manufacturing industries hit by foreign retaliatory tariffs were producers of: magnetic and optical media, leather goods, aluminum sheet, iron and steel, motor vehicles, household appliances, sawmills, audio and video equipment, pesticide, and computer equipment. The top ten industries hit by higher prices were: aluminum sheet, steel product, boilers, forging, primary aluminum production, secondary aluminum smelting, architectural metals, transportation equipment, general purpose machinery and household appliances."

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