Trump's Tariffs: What Is The Cost On Average American Household? Here's What Democrats Claim

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump after returning to the White House earlier this year have cost nearly $1,200 to an average American household, news agency AP reported, citing calculations by Democrats on Congress's Joint Economic Committee.

With reference to Treasury Department numbers on revenue from tariffs and Goldman Sachs' estimates of who ultimately bears the cost, the Democrats' report released on Thursday claimed that American consumers paid around $159 billion or $1,198 per household, from February through November.

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"This report shows that (Trump's) tariffs have done nothing but drive prices even higher for families,” AP quoted Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the economic committee.“At a time when both parties should be working together to lower costs, the president's tax on American families is simply making things more expensive.”

During his second term, Trump has reversed decades of US policy that supported free trade. He has levied double-digit tariffs on nearly every country. According to Yale University's Budget Lab, the average US tariff has increased from 2.4% earlier this year to 16.8%, the highest level since 1935, the report said.

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Trump consistently emphasises that these tariffs will protect domestic industries from unfair foreign competition, attract factories to the United States, and generate revenue for the Treasury.

“President Trump's tariffs have actually secured trillions in investments to make and hire in America as well as historic trade deals that finally level the playing field for American workers and industries," the news portal quoted White House Spokesman Kush Desai. "Democrats spent decades complaining about lopsided trade deals undermining the American working class, and now they're complaining about the one president who has done something about it.”

Notably, importers usually pay the taxes and try to pass on the increased costs to their customers in most cases.

Democrats performed well in last month's elections in Virginia, New Jersey, and other areas mainly because voters hold Trump and the Republicans responsible for the high cost of living. This mirrors how voters blamed Democrat Joe Biden, Trump's predecessor, for the same issue a year earlier.

Last week, Economist Kimberly Clausing from the UCLA School of Law and the Peterson Institute for International Economics said to a House subcommittee that Trump's tariffs amount to“the largest tax increase on American consumers in a generation, lowering standards of living for all Americans.” Clausing, a Treasury Department tax official in the Biden administration, has calculated that Trump's import taxes”amount to an annual tax increase of about $1,700 for an average household.''

(With inputs from agencies.)

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