On April 2, Trump announced sweeping tariffs on every country except Russia, North Korea, Cuba, and Belarus.[1] Tariffs are a tax that are paid by the importer when goods enter our country. Prices on everyday items will increase radically and responsive tariffs will harm US businesses. Ask your federal representatives (numbers at reps.fyi) to revoke Trump’s ability to apply tariffs.
The country of origin does not pay tariffs. Whoever is importing the goods in the US pays the tariff, and passes the cost along to regular consumers—in other words, we, the people will pay the tariff.[2]
Trump’s tariff sheet claims that countries charge the US exorbitant tariffs. This is a lie.[3] The number he lists has nothing to do with tariffs, but is instead a trade deficit ratio, calculated as the dollar amount we import from that country divided by the amount we export to that country.[4]
Trade deficits are not tariffs. We buy more from some countries than they buy from us because many Americans have disposable income and purchasing power. It is not possible, or beneficial, for countries to have perfectly balanced imports and exports.[5]
You will pay more for everything you buy, and American businesses will lose overseas customers. [6] The last time America passed sweeping tariffs was in 1930; this is part of what made the Great Depression last so long.[7] Trump’s tariffs are higher than the failed 1930 tariffs.[8]
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1. The full list of countries that Trump is applying his tariffs to, as well as their amounts, can be found on CBS News or on the White House Twitter account.
2. Professor Gulotty: "Tariffs are federal taxes, set by Congress, and applied to goods at the border."
Professor Adão: "If we go back to the trade war in 2018, there is a body of research showing that most of the impact of these tariffs was borne by consumers and firms inside the United States."
Professor Durlauf: "Consumers are directly affected by having to pay more for goods. To give some examples, approximately 60% of U.S. vegetable consumption comes from Mexico and 25% of crude oil processed by U.S. refineries comes from Canada. Even 80% of U.S. toys originate in China. Those, and many other products, will all cost Americans more."
Source: How do tariffs work, and who will they impact? UChicago experts explain, April 2, 2025.
3. The tariff number is a "straight up lie," according to CNBC's Steve Liesman. A Trump aide referred to the tariff numbers as "the trade deficit that we have with any given country." A trade deficit is not a tariff.
4. Wall Street Journal, Math Behind New U.S. Tariffs Point to Trade Imbalance as Key Issue, April 2, 2025.
5. A discussion on the difference between trade deficits and tariffs, and why we have trade deficits with many nations, can be found in Trump Declares a Trade War on Uninhabited Islands, US Military, and Economic Logic, TechDirt, April 3, 2025.
6. George W. Bush Institute, Tariffs are Great, If You Like Raising Prices, Undermining Jobs, and Inhibiting Innovation, Fall 2018.
7. "Smoot-Hawley contributed to the early loss of confidence on Wall Street... Within two years some two dozen countries adopted similar ‘beggar-thy-neighbour’ duties, making worse an already beleaguered world economy and reducing global trade. U.S. imports from and exports to Europe fell by some two-thirds between 1929 and 1932, while overall global trade declined by similar levels in the four years that the legislation was in effect." Encyclopedia Britannica, Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act.
8. "This is a much bigger shock to the economy than the infamous Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930, especially when you bear in mind that international trade is about three times as important now as it was then." Paul Krugman, Will Malignant Stupidity Kill the World Economy?, April 3, 2025.