“My fellow Americans, this is liberation day — waiting for a long time.”
That’s how President Trump began his remarks at the White House Wednesday afternoon. He went on to announce a whole series of tariffs at varying levels on many countries, including a 25% tariff on imported automobiles.
The president said America has been getting ripped off by friends and foes alike for decades.
“For years, hard-working Americans were forced to sit on the sidelines as other nations got rich and powerful, much of it at our expense, but now it’s our turn to prosper," Trump said.
University of San Diego economics professor Alan Gin said the kind of prosperity Trump is talking about would take a long time to happen, if ever.
“I appreciate the idea of trying to protect U.S. jobs and things like that, but to do this, it’s going to take years. These supply chains have been built up over a long period of time. Actually, you could view the offshoring of manufacturing in the U.S. as going all the way back to the 80s," Gin said.
“I am literally eyeball deep in myself in trying to understand this because I then have to communicate throughout the organization, 'How are we going to manage these tariffs?'" wondered Eric Barnes.
Barnes leads Chula Vista-based Hyspan, a manufacturer of metal products for industrial applications. The company is international; they own maquiladoras in Mexico among other places. He’s not feeling optimistic.
“I don’t see any scenario where, at least for us, which is a global company, where it somehow drives up demand in one of our facilities or not," he said.
For Barnes and countless other American business leaders like him, the tariffs present a complicated, incredibly challenging situation.
But, back to basics for a minute. It’s important to remember just what a tariff is.
“A tariff is a tax on imports. So if a tariff is placed on a product, if it’s imported into the country, the importer has to pay a tax to the U.S. government. Usually though, the importer or the business that buys the product then is going to try to pass that cost on to consumers," Gin said.
And that’s the rub that leads to the big question. The administration has admitted Trump’s action will cause some pain.
But how much, and how long will the American people stand for it? The unsatisfying answer for all of us is we’ll have to wait and see.
