American consumers and businesses stand to pay a hefty price for the tariffs President Donald Trump enacted on the nation’s top three trading partners.
With only a slim exemption for some Canadian energy products, everything the US imports from those three nations is subject to tariffs of at least 20%, in the case of China, and 25% for Mexico and Canada.
Americans won’t necessarily feel the effects of tariffs immediately but the import taxes could raise prices of just about everything, especially given that over 40% of the goods America imported last year came from the nations Trump targeted.
Just how high prices will get – and when – all depend on the extent to which businesses will absorb the higher cost of tariffs or reconfigure their supply chains to minimize costs, as well as how much inventory they have on hand.
Here’s where Americans could feel the sting hardest:
Food
Mexico and Canada supply a significant share of several key food categories. For example, Mexico is the largest supplier of fruit and vegetables to the United States, while Canada leads in exports of grain, livestock and meats, poultry and more.
Agricultural products from Mexico and Canada, in particular, could become more expensive for consumers, as grocery retailers operate on thinner profit margins than most industries. With little room to absorb higher tariff costs, the grocers may have to pass them on to shoppers.
Although the US typically exports more agricultural goods than it imports, the value of imports has increased faster than that of exports in the past decade, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Additionally, climate change has increased US reliance on countries like Mexico, where growing conditions are more favorable.
Last year, the US imported $46 billion of agricultural products from Mexico, according to USDA data. That includes $8.3 billion worth of fresh vegetables, $5.9 billion of beer and $5 billion of distilled spirits.
But the biggest category of agricultural imports from Mexico last year was fresh fruits, of which the US imported $9 billion worth, with avocados accounting for $3.1 billion of that total.
And on top of the tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, Trump also on Monday floated a separate tariff on agricultural imports, which could further increase the price of foods coming from these countries and worldwide.
Electronics, toys, appliances
Consumer electronics are among the top goods the US imported from China last year, according to federal trade data. That includes cellphones, TVs, laptops, video game consoles, monitors and all the components that power them.