An expert has revealed how Donald Trump’s tariffs will impact average grocery bills for US shoppers.
The trade war is continuing to escalate between the US and some of its top trading partners and neighbors, notably Canada, Mexico, China and more recently, Europe, as President Trump has made several announcements to crank up tariffs on certain goods coming into the country.
While the POTUS maintains the 25 percent hike, which includes a flat duty on steel and aluminum, will boost homemade manufacturing, protect jobs and contribute towards growing the domestic economy, trading partners have been less than happy about it and have announced their own retaliatory tariffs on US goods.
Trump has rolled out significant tariffs already (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Canada, especially Ontario Premier Doug Ford, has been at the forefront of the battlefield, snapping back that the province will roll out a 25 percent tariff on electricity that powers 1.5 million homes and businesses in New York, Michigan and Minnesota, or simply switch the lights off.
Ford estimated the hike would add $1,200 to the average annual electric bill of US citizens, but later backed down from the plan when Trump reciprocated the threat by saying Canadian metals would come with a 50 percent tariff instead.
The European Union has been the latest to enter the ring, inflicting what Trump has dubbed a ‘nasty’ 50 percent tariff on US alcohol to the tune of €26 billion (around $28 billion).
In response, Trump said he would inflict an eye-watering 200 percent levy on all EU wines, champagnes and alcohol products coming out of its 27 countries.
The President has threatened a 200 percent tariff on alcohol coming from the EU (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
This to-and-froing of sudden tax hikes is likely to jolt the economy and inflict higher prices for Americans, as importers can choose to pass on the hikes to consumers as some major retailers and manufactures, from Best Buy to Ford, are now warning, as per Fortune.
However, the food shop could be even more keenly felt for everyday people as economists estimate the levies could inflict a hike of $830 to $1,072 per US household a year, reports Grist.
This is because China, Canada and Mexico supplied almost half (40 percent) of all goods entering the States last year – and Mexico alone accounted for two-thirds of vegetables on US shelves in 2023, as well as nearly half of fruit and nut imports and 90 percent of avocados nationwide.
Mexico accounts for the majority of US fresh fruit and vegetable imports (Jeremy Hogan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Grocery executives at Kroger are now warning fresh food like lettuce and other products that come from warmer Mexican climates during the winter will inevitably get more expensive.
Target boss Brian Cornell added that if such tariffs do come into effect, consumers can expect to see their grocery bills rise on fresh fruit and vegetables ‘within days.’
The US agricultural industry is perhaps understandably the most anxious about the latest moves, considering China triggered retaliatory tariffs during Trump’s first term that cost the sector more than $27 billion, with consumers paying the price.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has threatened to hike electric bills for 1.5 million Americans (Katherine KY Cheng/Getty Images)
The US has still not fully patched up losses in its market share of soybean exports.
Analysis by the National Bureau of Economic Research further found the 2018 trade battle with China spiked US prices with rural agricultural sectors in the Midwest and mountain west hit the hardest.
And that’s not even including ‘the climate change-related shocks on the supply chain,’ Seungki Lee, an agricultural economist at Ohio State University told Grist with environmental factors also hiking up food inflation.
Lee added: “I’m a little nervous about the increase in tension. It could lead to an immediate shock in supermarket prices.”
