China’s tariff increase and it’s potential impact on local residents
JACKSON, Tenn.– On April 9th President Trump paused an increase on tariffs on select goods until July of this year.
However some imports from China can see a more than 100% increase.
With an almost $5 tax on imports from China. What does this mean for the average working class Tennessean?
This tariff war has been happening since President Trump signed an executive order in February.
However, the tariff wars can be good for our economy and other countries.
“If China’s are high and other countries are lower then we might start buying more things from other countries. Which means the prices might not go up as much. It’s still earlier to tell because the economic data hasn’t came out to reflect what’s happened to the tariffs,” says Charlie Smith, professor of economics and business analytics at Freed- Hardeman University.
Professor Smith shares the thought process of why tariff wars happen.
“We should make more things in the U.S. The way to encourage things to be manufactured in the U.S. is to increase the tax on buying things from other countries which would make U.S. made goods more attractive in terms of price from their foreign competition,” shares Smith.
Another reason these tariff wars happen is because America buys more than it sells in trades.
As of April 10th the American tariff against China is 145 %, according to news outlets.
“We might not reach a deal and it goes up in July but nothing is really going to change, drastically until that time. As I said earlier China will be the exception. China’s tariffs are still in effect and are very high,” he says.
Locally some manufacturing factories may take a hit if the July delay isn’t changed.
“Madison and Chester counties, the overall economic activity is about $9 billion a year. I mean its a lot- its a big economy- so out of $9 billion about $570 million is exports. That’s about 6.3%.”
There are things that residents can do to not take a hit during these tariff wars.
“If you have inflation your cash is losing it’s value. But, if you invest in something like land or business, or tangible assets then those things start to hold their value more during a time of inflation,” Smith explained.
As of now, the Mexican and Canadian government have made a deal with the U.S. government on their tariff wars.
