There’s no question that tariffs are expected to impact our wallets.
Economic analysts have been crunching the numbers.
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WATCH HEREA study released Tuesday projects tariffs will cost the average American household almost $5,000 this year.
The Yale report not only says tariffs will make things more expensive for consumers, but the taxes on imports will also hit lower-income families the hardest.
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SIGN UP Yale’s non-partisan research center, “The Budget Lab,” has been analyzing the impact of tariffs implemented this year.
The resarch center's latest report expects tariffs to cost the average American family $4,900, as prices increase an average about 3% this year.
That’s on top of typical inflation rates, said Ernie Tedeschi, the research center's director of economics.
NBC CT Responds
“For lower-income families, it's even worse for them, because lower-income families spend a greater share of their budget on imports than higher-income families do,” he said. “Because poor families oftentimes buy a lot of imports from China, in particular. So, these 145% tariffs on China are tailor-made to pinch working-class families.”
The Connecticut Business and Industry Association has also weighed in on the impact of tariffs on businesses, saying tariff policies will hike the cost of goods imported into our state by at least $3.16 billion.
It says these will hit Connecticut’s manufacturing sector the hardest.
“China continues to be one of our largest trading partners. Thankfully, here in Connecticut some of our trading partners are in Europe, Mexico, and Canada, but we will see an impact whether it be our products being sent to China and the retaliatory or the thought of importing certain raw goods or certain components that are part of our supply chain here in Connecticut,” Chris Davis, CBIA’s vice president of public policy, said.
The CBIA says the continuously changing tariff percentages is not good for business.
Tedeschi says the uncertainty concerns shoppers, too.
