Prices would’ve dropped absent tariffs: New York Federal Reserve Bank
The Rio Grande Foundation has taken a strong stance from day 1 against President Trump’s import taxes (tariffs). Among other things we signed multiple “friend of the court” briefs in cases pushing back against the tariffs. Read them here and here.
Our critiques have been based on:
- The chaotic and constantly changing approach taken;
- The fact that Congress was NOT involved which is a problem for both point 1 AND future administrations that may attempt to impose taxes without Congress;
- We have been concerned that raising taxes on imported goods would raise costs for everyday Americans.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York produced the following report which makes the case that the cost of 67 categories of goods was 2.9 percentage points higher as of February thanks to tariffs.
Without the levies, the team found that prices for the products they studied would have pulled back by almost 1%.
