Vice Presidential nominee Senator JD Vance, appears on Meet the Press for an argumentative debate on Trump policy. On the issue of tariffs, this might have been JD Vance’s first opportunity to set the record straight about what tariffs did in the first Trump administration.
Unfortunately, because JD Vance did not have the data to refute the NBC talking points, he missed an opportunity to set the record straight. Tariffs did not raise prices and consumers did not pay tariff rates in the first Trump administration. Factually, the exact opposite happened. Prices dropped when Trump tariffs were put into place, the reasons are explained after the interview. WATCH:
Our own analysis of U.S. consumer prices in 2019 showed that prices of imported goods actually declined despite the tariffs. A recent report from CPA takes a look at the impact to Chinese exports to the U.S. [SEE DATA HERE] Bottom line, the tariffs worked to reduce Chinese imports.
CPA – […] Since the Section 301 tariffs were imposed, the share of imports from China has steadily declined from 21.6% in 2017 the year prior to the tariffs to 16.5%, a decline of 5.1%. No other country has lost as much share of total U.S. import penetration over the past five years.
In terms of total import value, Mexico gained the most from the tariffs, adding $110.8 billion. Vietnam gained the second most in import value by $78.4 billion and by far gained the most of total share of U.S. imports. In 2017, Vietnam accounted for about 2% of U.S. imports at $46.5 billion. In 2022, the U.S. imported $127.5 billion in goods from Vietnam, and the share of the total nearly doubled to 3.9%. Other countries in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia all saw significant increases in their value of imports by the U.S. (read more)
With the 2024 election here, it is worth revisiting the actual tariff outcome to American consumers in order to dispel the popular myths about tariffs raising prices here at home. This might be the cited data you want to bookmark for later reference.
