How Trump’s tariffs are already impacting Americans

Donald Trump has shocked the global trade system since his return to the White House.

The American president announced on April 2, the so-called liberation day, a multitude of so-called “reciprocal” or import taxes, hitting dozens of countries around the world.

Many of them have been interrupted. And since then, Trump has also announced agreements with several partners – including the United Kingdom, Vietnam, Japan and the European Union – which reduce certain rate levels.

But special products and goods such as cars and steel have also been targeted with important tariffs specific to industry by Washington – and the average tariff rate of the United States is highest in almost a century.

The prices themselves are finally paid by American companies which bring goods to the country from abroad.

The impact of all this is felt in the United States and in the world economy in different ways.

The LAB budget of the University of Yale estimated that on July 28, 2025, the average effective rate rate imposed by the United States on imports of goods was 18.2%, the highest since 1934.

It was up 2.4% in 2024, before Donald Trump returned to work.

This significant increase means that the American government’s pricing income has increased.

Official data from the United States show that in June 2025, pricing income was 28 billion dollars, triple the monthly income observed in 2024.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the independent American tax guard dog, said in June that the increase in tariff income, based on new American prices imposed between January 6 and May 13, 2025, would reduce the cumulative loan of the United States government over the 10 years to 2035 by $ 2.5 billion.

However, the CBO also judged that prices would reduce the size of the American economy compared to the way it would work without them.

They also provide for the additional income generated by prices will be more than offset by lost income due to Trump administration reductions in the next decade.

Donald Trump considers bilateral trade deficits as proof that other countries benefit from the United States by selling more goods to America than they buy.

One of the justifications for its prices is to respond to this imbalance by limiting imports and forcing other countries to reduce their own barriers to American goods.

However, one of the remarkable impacts of the Donald Trump trade war has so far been to increase American imports of goods.

Indeed, American companies have stored supplies before the implementation of prices to avoid being forced to pay the additional tax.

Meanwhile, American exports have only seen a modest increase.

The net profit is that the trade deficit of American goods has expanded, not fell.

He reached a record of $ 162 billion in March 2025, before falling to $ 86 billion in June.

The distortion caused by storage will disappear, but in the longer term, many economists expect the Trump administration will always find it difficult to reduce the American trade deficit.

Indeed, they argue that the deficit is mainly motivated by structural imbalances within the American economy – persistent national spending over national production – rather than by unfair commercial practices led by America by other nations.

Trump imposed punitive prices on China, withdrawals at some point reaching 145%.

They fell to 30%, but the impact of these commercial hostilities on Chinese trade with America was nevertheless significant.

The value of Chinese exports to the United States in the first six months of 2025 fell 11% over the same period in 2024.

Meanwhile, Chinese exports to some of its other business partners have grown up, suggesting that Chinese companies have been able to find customers in other countries.

Chinese exports to India this year increased by 14% over the same period last year and with the EU and the United Kingdom, they increased by 7% and 8% respectively.

A 13% increase in the value of Chinese exports to the ASEAN nations, notably Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, during this period.

The Trump administration was concerned about the possibility that Chinese companies are trying to bypass American prices on China by setting up operations in neighboring Southeast Asian countries-to which they export semi-finished goods-and by exporting finished products to the United States from there.

Such a “tariff jump” occurred when Donald Trump imposed prices on Chinese solar panels in his first mandate and that some economists argue that the increase in Chinese exports to the ASEAN nations could be linked to the same phenomenon.

Some countries responded to the Trump trade war by trying to deepen trade ties with other countries, rather than putting their own barriers.

The United Kingdom and India signed a trade agreement which they negotiated for three years.

Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein – which are part of a group called the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) – have concluded a new trade agreement with a number of Latin American countries in a group known as Mercosur.

The EU goes ahead with a new trade agreement with Indonesia.

Canada explores a free trade agreement with the Anase.

Some countries have also benefited from trade fracturing between the United States and China.

China has traditionally been an important world importer in the United States, which it uses as fodder for its 440 million pigs.

But in recent years, Beijing has evolved more and more towards the purchase of its soybeans in Brazil, rather than in America, a tendency organization affirmed has accelerated following the last trade war of Donald Trump and new prices for Beijing on American agricultural imports.

In June 2025, China imported 10.6 million tonnes of Brazil soybeans, but only 1.6 million tonnes in the United States.

When China has put reprisals on American soybells imports into Donald Trump’s first term, its administration estimated the need to compensate for American farmers directly with new grants.

Economists warn that Trump prices will ultimately increase American prices by making imports more expensive.

The United States official inflation rate for June was 2.7%. This increased slightly compared to the inflation figure of 2.4% for May, but still below the rate of 3% in January.

Storage in the previous part of the year helped retailers absorb the impact of prices without the need to increase retail prices.

However, economists have seen some signs in the latest official data that Trump prices are now starting to switch to American consumer prices.

Certain imported products such as the main household appliances, computers, sports facilities, books and toys showed a marked price collection in June.

Researchers from the Prix Laboratory of the Harvard University, which examine the effects of the tariff measures of 2025 in real time using online data of four main American retailers, found that the price of imported products in the United States and domestic products affected by prices increased more quickly in 2025 than national products that are not affected by prices.

Additional report by Alison Benjamin, Yi Ma, Anthony Myers.