Ed Gresser, Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI, published his most recent trade fact of the week estimating how the Trump campaign’s  10% worldwide tariff, plus 60% tariff on Chinese-made goods, would impact American families. According to Gresser’s review of current economic analyses,

Two independent nonprofits, studying its probable effect this month, basically agree on what to expect. Mary Lovely and Kimberly Clausing, writing for the Peterson Institute of International Economics earlier this month, estimate an additional $1,700 in additional costs per U.S. household, with the greatest loss of purchasing power in the lowest-income families.  Brendan Duke, a former National Economic Council economist now with the Center for American Progress, finds a similar $1,500 increase in costs per middle-income household, with specific examples including $120 in higher payment for fuels, $90 for medicine, $220 for autos and boats, $80 for consumer electronics, and $90 for food. Overall, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey reports that on average households spent $19,154* on goods in 2022. Against this background, a $1,500 or $1,700 cost increase is something like an 8% or 9% burst of inflation in goods prices, or an equivalently high “tax increase” depending on the angle from which you look at it. Prices are higher either way.