If your wallet’s feeling lighter this week, you probably already know why. With President Trump implementing his 25 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, and doubling his existing tariff on Chinese imports to 20 percent, two of the biggest retailers in the US are warning shoppers that prices will rise almost immediately.
CNN quotes Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, who says that “we’ve never seen this kind of breadth of tariffs.” She expects manufacturers to pass rising costs onto retailers and, effectively, consumers. Target CEO Brian Cornell said the same to CNBC: “The consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days,” especially on produce and other foods, which the US imports in huge volumes from Mexico during the winter.
Between China, Canada, and Mexico, tariffs are raising prices on 40 percent of America’s retail goods by value, CNN estimates. The biggest immediate impact will be on food and industries like automobiles, which rely on steel and aluminum for manufacturing. But for PCWorld’s purposes, the impact on electronics prices will be particularly grievous. We’ve already seen companies like motherboard manufacturer ASRock and PC giant Acer warn of increasing prices.
Though manufacturers are scrambling to find solutions outside of China, international supply chains simply can’t move that fast… and those solutions might not work anyway since Trump has threatened similar tariffs on chip giant Taiwan, western Europe, and apparently any country that attracts his attention. Knock-on effects will impact consumers in other countries as retaliatory tariffs are put in place against the United States, putting strain on markets around the world.
If you’ve been thinking of a big purchase, it might be best to get it in immediately. You’ll almost certainly be paying more very soon.