New tariffs announced by the White House late yesterday will bring the total cost of tariffs imposed on Americans to an average of $2,048 per year, according to new analysis from National Taxpayers Union.
The total annual cost of new tariffs amounts to $271.6 billion, or approximately $171 per month for the average household. It is the biggest peacetime U.S. tax increase in history, and puts U.S. tariff rates at their highest levels since the Great Depression.
“Tariffs are tax increases on American consumers,” said Bryan Riley, director of the Free Trade Initiative and author of the report. “Tariffs limit consumer choices, increase prices on American families, and shrink opportunities to sell U.S.-made goods in the global marketplace.”
Beyond the domestic tax burden, the report warns that reduced imports will limit trading partners’ ability to purchase American exports. Riley projects that increasing tariffs on European Union goods from 1.2% to 15% could reduce U.S. imports from the EU by 27.5%, leaving Europe with $164.6 billion less annually to spend on American products.
“The more we import, the more we export,” Riley said, noting that each percentage-point increase in tariff rates could reduce imports by 2%.
National Taxpayers Union supports President Donald Trump’s previous calls for low-tariff reciprocity agreements with the goal of zero tariffs, zero subsidies, and zero trade barriers.
But, instead, under the new tariffs Americans face trillions of dollars in new taxes while losing export opportunities to 95% of the world’s population living outside the United States.
The analysis draws from estimates by the White House, Tax Foundation, Penn Wharton Tariff Simulator, and Budget Lab at Yale.