Trump tariffs draw concerns about inflation

Call it the war over trade wars. Economists are warning the “price of imported manufactured goods would rise significantly” and hurt American pocketbooks if Donald Trump returned to the White House and enacted new tariffs, Axios said. “What it means for U.S. consumers is obviously higher prices,” said Peterson Institute’s Mary Lovely. But Trump’s allies are aiming to undo the “China shock” that outsourced manufacturing jobs a generation ago. “Washington should, in fact, seek to decouple its economy from China’s,” said former Trump adviser Robert O’Brien.

The debate comes amid the GOP’s “near-complete abandonment” of its Reagan-era free-market ideals, said The New York Times. The Republican platform now pooh-poohs a “blind faith in the siren song of globalism,” while Trump has suggested tariffs of 10% on most imports — and up to 60% on Chinese-made goods. “It’s definitely a more populist approach,” said one analyst. But other experts are skeptical. “A policy that includes tariffs and trade blockages are all highly inflationary,” said the American Enterprise Institute’s Steven Kamin.

‘Less room for damaging policies’