Journalism of Courage
President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs took a toll on trade in August, as imports dropped 5.1%, to $340.4 billion, after taxes on exports from roughly 90 countries went into effect Aug. 7, newly released data from the Commerce Department showed Wednesday.
The data, which had been delayed by more than a month because of the government shutdown, gives the first look at trade patterns after Trump introduced what is effectively a new trading system for the United States.
The president announced global double-digit tariffs in April on what he called “Liberation Day,” saying that the previous system had cheated the United States and cost it jobs and money. While his tariffs briefly went into effect, they were then largely paused for four months as the administration tried to strike deals with trading partners.
On Aug. 7, the tariffs again went into effect, with a 15% rate on goods from Bolivia, Ecuador and Nigeria, 20% on Taiwanese products and 50% on Brazilian exports.
Altogether, they brought the U.S. effective tariff rate to more than 18%, the highest level since 1934, according to the Budget Lab at Yale.
U.S. imports and exports had risen in July, as companies that depend on international trade had tried to complete their shipments before those tariffs went into effect. In August, trade then dropped, as American businesses imported fewer industrial supplies, food and beverages, and machinery, according to an analysis by Moody’s Analytics.
Many of the president’s tariffs, including those he issued in early August, could be undermined by a challenge at the Supreme Court. The court is weighing whether Trump exceeded his legal authority with those tariffs, and it could curtail or strike them down in the coming weeks or months.
Even so, the president has other legal authorities he can use and is likely to announce new measures to replace at least some of them.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
