This Chattanooga Times Free Press article describes the different ways that President Trump’s proposed tariffs will harm local businesses and consumers. The article includes comments from CRER director and chief economist Howard Wall about how costs will be higher for both consumers and producers.
“Tariffs are almost entirely passed on to the American purchasers, whether they’re consumers or companies,” Howard Wall, director of the Center for Regional Economic Research at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, said in a phone interview. “Consumers will pay higher prices for sure, and most firms will also see their cost of making things be higher.”
If Trump follows through with his proposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada, manufacturers will see costs rise, Wall said. The entire automobile sector is multinational, and the price of cars could increase by $3,000, he said.