Era of cheap goods for Americans appears to be over
Faisal Islam
Economics editor
The era of cheap goods that we've seen over the last couple of decades appears to be over for the American consumer. We expect higher tariffs to automatically pass through to inflation and higher prices.
From what we hear, the White House asked retailers not to put up prices. There are also suggestions that US retailers that source from China, for example, have been hauled up in front of the Chinese authorities when they try to pass on the tariff rises to their Chinese suppliers.
It's easy to tell people what to do but they're certainly not going to make any profits - they'll probably make losses and that will be reflected in the share price.
There are all sorts of unintended consequences here. Sometimes you can't go anywhere else in terms of the supplies that you need.
The tariff on Madagascar, for example, is really important for producers that require imports of vanilla. That's a very, very small issue but you multiply that by 1,000, by 10,000, by 100,000 and all these things that would be imported now face quite punitive tariffs in the double digits.
Then there are the logistics: Can you really re-orientate and change your supply chain so quickly?
The US has benefited from cheaper goods from overseas, at the expense of losing manufacturing jobs. But, now they want the manufacturing jobs back, it’s difficult to see how the price and inflationary situation will stay benign.
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