Tariffs ‘starting to show up’: how Trump’s strategy could increase back-to-school costs | Trump tariffs
Summer is coming to an end and that parents and children are preparing for a new school year, their first lesson will be in economics.
Most of Donald Trump’s rates entered into force in early August. We are still waiting for an agreement with China. But with school supplies so dependent on imports, consumers are impatiently waiting to see how prices will affect the prices they see in stores.
A survey by the National Retail Federation (NRF) revealed that 12% additional parents began back -to -school purchases earlier this year compared to last year, largely due to concerns about prices, and 72% of parents are waiting for higher prices this year.
The NRF estimated that the total expenses expected for school return to school, new clothes and electronics in pencils and paper, will total $ 39.4 billion – the second higher registered, after 2023. Families with children from kindergarten to 12th year are budgetist, on average, $ 874.68 for everything they need for the year.
We still don’t know exactly how much Trump’s new prices will affect prices. Companies have the power to increase prices as much as they wish, but at the risk of losing customers against competitors.
“There is a lot of behind the scenes, like importers, trying to renegotiate with their foreign suppliers, they try to bring their foreign suppliers to absorb some costs, they try to absorb costs themselves,” said Sarah Dickerson, research economist at the University of North Caroline in Chapel Hill.
At the beginning of the summer, Target announced that it would maintain its 2024 prices for 20 “essential supplies”, a move that the company hopes to maintain loyal customers during the rear shopping season.
However, economists argue that retailers will possibly have the costs. A recent analysis by Goldman Sachs estimated that consumers paid 36% of the three -month pricing costs and 67% of costs four months after the levy.
These increases are barely starting to appear in inflation data. After plunging in the spring, inflation has increased since April, which has attracted the attention of officials of the American federal reserve.
The prices “begin to appear in consumer prices … [and] We expect to see more, “said FED president Jerome Powell in July.” We know by investigations that companies believe they intend to put this to the consumer. “
Of course, this is contrary to how the White House thinks. Trump said prices will bring back manufacturing in America or help the country to negotiate better commercial transactions. Trump has widely dismissed potential price increases and while conceding that the prices “will not be easy, the end result will be historic”.
For parents who start their return home purchases, Dickerson recommends taking the time to compare prices between stores because they can vary between retailers.
“These individual prices will vary, that is why it makes sense, if you are a parent, to do a little shopping and to see what the different prices are,” she said.
