Washington- The American Progress Center estimated that the customs definitions launched by President Donald Trump on Wednesday cost an average of each American family $ 5,200 annually.
The center considered that the increase borne by American families is a direct result of the expected high prices on most commodities and daily consumer goods that are indispensable, such as food, clothes, cars, electronics, building materials and home appliances.
A study conducted by the Budget Laboratory at Yale University found that the income available for poor families whose annual income is 50 thousand dollars will shrink by 2.3% due to the expected high prices, while families with high income (more than half a million dollars annually) will witness a decrease of only 0.9%.
Economist James Sorwiki considered that the Americans from the working classes will eventually bear the cost of imposing definitions, and that “the vast majority of Americans will be worse.”
He explained that “the matter is not with this complication: customs definitions are a tax, part of this tax will be carried by the foreign product, and the importer will bear another part of it, but American consumers will pay the largest part of it.”
American street reaction
The results of the presidential elections that Trump won last November demonstrated that inflation, high prices and economics were generally the most important issue in 40% of the voters.
While Trump has pledged to reduce prices to stumbling Americans, his definitions are expected to increase the cost of everything from children’s shoes to vegetables and various food products and cars.
A middle school teacher in the Montgomery Province, adjacent to Washington, Maryland, spoke to Al Jazeera Net, and said, “It is sad to witness expected increases in prices, every plans to change my car next summer and buy a new car that will be mostly postponed. Prices were already high, and I think what we are witnessing is not calculated by the Trump administration, I do not know how the president’s decisions can be stopped.”
While Blake Harden, Vice President of the Retail Industry Association, said that all early indicators indicate that these definitions will be very dangerous for retail. For example, the shoe that could have been sold at $ 33 a year ago will be sold for $ 51.
The poor pay the price
The expert Erney Tedishi at Yale University considered that “customs definitions are a regular tax, as they harm low -income families than hurting high -income families, they are basically a consumption tax, and it is a tax on spending, and low -income families spend a greater share of their income, than families with high income, so they are more likely to be affected by customs tariffs.”
“If the family’s income is 100 thousand dollars, the customs tariffs cost you two thousand dollars, you will feel bad about 2% of your income. But imagine that you have an income of only 20 thousand dollars, and that the definitions cost you only 800 dollars, you will feel more damage to a loss of 4%,” said Kimberly Klausen, expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economy.
Trump’s definitions, which have been imposed, can generally increase prices by 2%to 3%, in addition to inflation currently 3%.
The Budget Laboratory at Yale University expected that the prices of leather goods, including shoes, will increase by 18%, clothes by 17%, and electrical appliances by 10%.
It is also certain that the cost of food increases, and the rate of increase in rice prices will be 10%, and it is expected that the prices of fish, nuts and fresh products will increase by 4%.
However, Trump and White House officials have reduced the impact of these prices on prices, on the pretext that it is necessary to reorganize global trade and restore manufacturing functions to American territory. While Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he believed the Americans want more than low -cost commodities.
The consequences of reprisals
With China imposing 34% revenge definitions on American goods and goods, the same percentage imposed by Trump last Wednesday, analyzes agree that the trade war between the largest economists in the world has already begun.
At the same time, the European Union countries are expected to respond by imposing retaliatory definitions on American goods, goods and services. The UK has also established a list of American products that it could impose on customs duties, but has not yet taken any specific measures.
The double effects of the new wave are expected to be a customs tariff announced by Trump more influential on Americans with low income, who depend heavily on cheap, low -cost products from the most affected countries such as China, Vietnam and Thailand.
For example, the imposition of customs tariffs by 40% will pay an additional 40% of the importers of the value of these commodities to the customs authorities in entry ports to the American market.
Raise the negotiation ceiling
Trump said he had a call with Vietnam to Lam, who asked him to reduce the Vietnamese customs tariffs “to zero if they were able to conclude an agreement with the United States.”
The call news, which Trump posted on the Truth Social platform, has increased the shares of companies that make some of its goods in Vietnam, as the shares of Nikki clothes and sports shoes have jumped by more than 4%. Trump has imposed 46% customs definitions on Vietnam.
Trump’s celebration of the Vietnamese government stepped reflected the vision of some of his aides who repeat that Trump’s goal of escalation by imposing sanctions is to reach new agreements that improve Washington’s negotiating situation.
Last year, the volume of trade exchange between the United States and Vietnam reached 150 billion dollars, and the United States recorded a trade deficit of 123.5 billion dollars, which reflects the increasing trade imbalance between the two countries.
The most influential sectors
All initial estimates indicate that many sectors of the American economy are affected by Trump’s definitions, foremost of which is the technology sector due to its dependence on international supply chains, which leads to great losses in increasing production costs.
The retail and consumer commodity sector, which is the sector that provides daily consumables for millions of Americans, including clothes, electronics, shoes and home appliances, will be very affected by all these goods no longer made inside the United States.
While the agricultural and food industries sector from which the United States exports large quantities, due to the counter -tariffs that China started with the imposition of 34% on all American goods, which leads to high costs, which may affect the decline in their prices negatively to the American source.
The manufacturing sector that Trump claims will not survive his desire to revive, as manufacturers, such as car manufacturers, will not survive increases in production costs as a result of steel and aluminum fees.
