Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at the Progressive Policy Institute, put out his trade fact of the week, looking at how the proposed measures to save U.S. manufacturing jobs by the Trump campaign would negatively impact the cost of every day household items. Gresser uses the toaster as an example, after Vance said “We believe that a million cheap knockoff toasters aren’t worth the price of a single U.S. manufacturing job” at a Nevada event in July and looks at what rising appliance costs would mean for family budgets.
Gresser also shares how inconceivable it is that the proposed tariff increases of 10% and 60% would bring toaster making home to America:
The U.S. already charges a 5.3% tariff on pop-up toasters (HTS 85167200). None are made here. So as with a lot of U.S. tariff lines, the toaster tariff’s only effect is somewhat higher prices. To get the spectacular ten-fold price-hike that sustains super-toaster making in Japan, Italy, and the U.K., you’d need a 900% tariff or some equivalent policy. (Or, if you need only a five-fold price jump to make less impressive appliances profitable, 400%.) In fact, the additional Trump/Vance tariffs on metals, wiring, buttons, plastics, and other inputs would make U.S.-based toaster-making — including for currently successful producers like Holman Star — harder, not easier. The differentially higher tariff on Chinese-made popups might push some into Vietnam or the Philippines, or possibly Mexico, but that would be the end of it.
In sum, Vance-world looks very expensive for families, not obviously better for workers, and not realistic anyway.