As of this weekend, Trump’s tariffs against the United States’ three largest trading partners — Canada, Mexico, and China — are now in effect. Despite the administration insisting that Trump’s tariffs will somehow strengthen our economy and “punish” Mexico in particular for perceived threats of immigration and fentanyl smuggling, Ali Velshi explains here that it is not, in fact, the exporting countries that pay taxes in imported goods, but the American companies importing those goods — and eventually, the American consumer.
The North American trading bloc is the largest in the world and, for 30 years, has been managed by free trade agreements. The United States imports roughly $475 billion annually in goods from Canada, including crude oil, vehicles, and parts, machinery, and plastics. From Mexico, we import around $418 billion in vehicles, parts, computers, half of our imported fruits, and more than two-thirds of our imported vegetables.
This means that Trump’s tariffs will increase the cost of nearly everything on store shelves, from clothing to home goods to electronics and groceries. In return, Canada and Mexico have already begun retaliating by removing some American products from their shelves and preparing tariffs of their own on our exported goods.
LISTEN: VELSHI EXPLAINS HOW TRUMP’S TARIFFS WILL RAISE PRICES
WATCH: VELSHI ON HOW TARIFFS WORK
MORE FROM MSNBC’S ALI VELSHI
