Donald Trump's plans to throw drastic new tariffs at goods from Canada and Mexico are going to have immediate and massive impacts on American consumers, Washington Post economic analyst Catherine Rampell told CNN's Erica Hill on Tuesday — and not in a good way.
"Catherine, when we look at the impact here ... what's your take on the big picture, which industries in the U.S. could be hit the hardest?" asked Hill.
"Basically everything consumers buy is going to have some impact," Rampell replied. "So we import a lot of produce, for example, from Mexico ... that's part of the reason why we're able to get year-round raspberries, and so many of those delicious avocados that Americans love to eat. We get a lot of our food from Mexico. In fact, for avocados specifically, 90 percent of them come from Mexico. Of the fresh tomatoes that Americans buy, two-thirds of them come from Mexico. So yes, as it pertains to Donald Trump's promise that he would lower grocery prices, this is somewhat at odds with that."
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Another big impact would be gas prices, she continued.
"The entire petroleum industry is very integrated across North America. We both import and export crude and refined products to — particularly to Canada, also to Mexico. Remember, in fact, that Donald Trump often laments the end of the Keystone pipeline, which would have imported more oil from Canada to the United States. If we raise tariffs on all Canadian goods, including crude oil, that's going to raise the price of gasoline something like 25-75 cents per gallon across the Midwest, which relies heavily ... on oil products coming from Canada."
It's not only food and gas that would see big price increases, she continued, but housing and transportation as well.
"A lot of the housing industry relies on Canadian lumber, Canadian cement," Rampell said. "Certainly U.S. jobs are at risk here, too, even before we get into the possible retaliation from these other countries, because, for example, the U.S. auto industry, again, is integrated across these three countries ... we're talking about lots of auto parts, and cars themselves go back and forth across borders with Mexico and with Canada. So all of those U.S. jobs are going to be at risk, in addition to the higher prices for consumers. So, yes, if he carries out this threat, it would be disastrous."
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