A few weeks after President Donald J. Trump was elected and put in office, the prices of materials have skyrocketed to an all-time high in the United States, and a few people are still wondering why; the answer to this are tariffs
The word tariff refers to a tax placed on the import or export of goods, which have recently become a hot topic of discussion. Within the past few months, President Trump has decided to increase the tariff prices for certain countries across the globe. Because of this, the tariffs could lead to problems for both the consumers and companies that rely on imports and exports. This is due to the companies having to pay more for goods, which in turn causes an increase in sales price, affecting the consumer. This chain reaction can create distress for both parties.
Situations such as these can create strained relationships between two countries that depend on each other’s markets. A recent article by Yahoo Finance reported that “China, in recent weeks, has raised duties on imports of U.S. goods to 125% from 84%” as a response to the President’s recent tariffs on China, which have been set to 145% compared to its previous 34%. Yuri Durkin, a Freshman at Champaign Central High School, believes that the President could have changed the tariffs in place because he “saw that we had tariffs from other countries and decided to do the same thing.”
The previous highest amount of tariffs ever was back in the 1930s with around 60% under the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which intended to protect the U.S. agricultural businesses and farmers from foreign competitors by raising the prices on imported goods. These tariffs were eventually lowered to the 2.5% average tariff rate until President Trump came into office again.
In response to the recent worry from consumers, President Trump told NBC News that he wanted to make sure that the U.S. wasn’t being taken advantage of by tariffs from other countries. He then claimed that this would be the rise of the “golden era” for the U.S. economy and that the current prices are just a transition period into that possibly new, better era.
Because the tariffs are increasing so dramatically, Ms. Wachtel, the microbiology, space science, and zoology teacher at CCHS, realized that “Used products won’t be affected by this, so like shopping at a resale store, they work just as well.”
Due to the way these tariffs are being put in place in a way that’s not their intended usage, it’s possible to say that they’re likely to stay this high for a few years and that people should try to minimize damages and save money as best they can before the prices go up.
