Summary
Trump announced that 25% tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico will take effect on February 1, though a decision on including oil remains pending.
He justified the move by citing undocumented migration, fentanyl trafficking, and trade deficits.
Trump also hinted at new tariffs on China.
Canada and Mexico plan retaliatory measures while seeking to address U.S. concerns.
If oil imports are taxed, it could raise costs for businesses and consumers, potentially contradicting Trump’s pledge to reduce living expenses.
What does Mexico export to the US that isn’t a consumer good?
https://jwmason.org/slackwire/what-exactly-does-the-us-buy-from-mexico/
This is a good list from a quick search, other search results states a lot of vehicles (in this case we’d be talking about vehicles for industry) agricultural (I didn’t look far enough but it could be both produce which would be consumer, but it could also have some ag production products, and machinery, machinery probably being the largest non consumer good product depending on how much that agricultural divide is between consumer/industry.
Included in that list is oil, that would be non consumer, computers would be roughly the same split if not more than agricultural considering companies go through computers more than the average consumer. Computers is also a pretty broad tag so take that with a grain of salt.
Services and other seems kind of substantial, this is not my area at all, just relaying a search essentially, so that could go either way if included in the tariffs at all.
Those things will still have impact on consumer prices though. Agricultural vehicles costing more will increase domestically produced food prices (didn’t John Dear just move production there). Oil costing more increases transport costs on everything, but at least could be sourced from elsewhere.
I don’t really see how exceptions could be made to protect consumers without undercutting the whole thing. I expect to be on everything or nothing.
100% agreed.
Capitalism is designed to pass the buck to us. That’s just how it works. It might take a little longer if it is through the production pipeline like the examples above, but it’s still gonna fuck us.