Some of the stiffest new tariffs are on hold, but experts say shoppers’ bills for White House trade policies are coming due soon.
President Donald Trump’s surprise 90-day suspension Wednesday of much of his April 2 tariff announcement doesn’t change the likelihood that consumers will pay more for many goods and services in the months ahead, economists warn.
All the tariffs he has announced this year would dent households’ purchasing power by an average $4,400 annually, the Yale University Budget Lab forecast Thursday. While inflation dipped more than expected in March, analysts say it’s likely just a temporary reprieve.
“That was nice, but don’t get used to it,” Greg McBride, Bankrate chief financial analyst, said in a statement Thursday.
The president’s rapidly shifting trade war has created enormous uncertainty for businesses around the world, threatening price stability, and his steep new import taxes are merely delayed, not called off. A 10% across-the-board duty that went into effect this week remains in place, as well as a massive 145% tariff on Chinese imports.
“With both inflation and the overall economy, uncertainty abounds about what might be lurking around the bend,” McBride said.
Here’s where consumers could feel the most pain in their pockets.
Electronics
Consumers have been scurrying to Apple stores in recent days to upgrade their iPhones, and with good reason: the company’s best-selling product is manufactured in China, and its highest-end version could see a price hike of at least $350, according to UBS analysts.
Other electronics from laptops to televisions could see similar jumps. Electronic parts — such as computing machinery, cameras, TV and radio transmitters — will account for the largest revenues from Trump’s tariff regime by far, according to an analysis of trade data by Global Trade Alert, a nonprofit research group.
Vehicles and auto parts
Trump’s 25% tariff on imported vehicles has already taken effect, costing Americans an additional $2,500 to $20,000 per vehicle, depending on its size and type, according to estimates by Anderson Economic Group.
Additional import taxes in the pipeline could prove inescapable even for those who don’t buy a new car, experts say. Uncertainty remains about which auto parts would be exempt under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that Trump negotiated during his first term, while the U.S. imported a record 63% of its tires last year from countries such as Thailand (37% tariff) and South Korea (25% tariff). The U.S. gets almost all of its natural rubber from other countries, which means domestic producers will be hobbled, as well.
In other words, there’s a good chance that auto tuneup is about to cost Americans more.
Nuts
“While the domestic production of peanuts and tree nuts is bountiful, not every nut commodity can be grown within the United States,” the Peanut and Tree Nut Processors Association said in a statement last week.
That includes cashews, one of the main exports of Vietnam, which the president hit with a 46% tariff April 2. Shoppers will also see pricier Brazil nuts, a major product of the Ivory Coast (whose exports face a 21% tariff), and macadamias, produced in South Africa (31%).
Coffee
The United States is the second-largest importer of coffee in the world, with about 80% of unroasted beans coming from Brazil and Colombia, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department. While both countries are subject to Trump’s 10% baseline tariff, recent droughts in key growing regions have already been pushing up prices this year.
Rice
More than a quarter of the rice sold in the U.S. is imported from countries such as Thailand (facing a 36% tariff) and India (26%), according to the USDA. Consumers can expect to see more expensive aromatic rice, such as jasmine and basmati, as a result of the steeper import taxes.
Wine and spirits
The White House has also slapped new tariffs on the nation’s top alcohol sources, including the European Union (subject to 20% tariffs), which accounts for 80% of all the wine the U.S. imported last year.
Combined with the 25% tariff on Mexican and Canadian goods — and the expansion of Trump’s aluminum duties to include canned beer imports — some households might end up considering a dry summer.
“The increased costs of living that will result from the recently enacted tariffs, along with the significant increase in prices for wines that will result, will only push down consumption further,” the National Association of Wine Retailers said in a statement last week. The trade group said the policies risked “harming the American wine industry to a degree from which many of its participants will not recover.”
Clothing
Some of the largest American retailers source apparel and footwear from Asian countries including China, Bangladesh (37%), and Vietnam, which in recent years became a manufacturing hub for U.S. businesses seeking to duck trade barriers on China. That looks set to change when the new 46% tariff on Vietnamese products goes into effect.
Those three countries are among the top manufacturing hubs for VF Corporation, owner of brands including Timberland, Dickies, the North Face, and Vans. Gap, which operates Old Navy, Gap and Banana Republic, sourced most of its apparel from factories in Vietnam, India, Indonesia (32%), Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (44%).
“The 2025 tariffs disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, with consumers facing 58% higher apparel prices in the short-run, the Yale Budget Lab researchers wrote. “Apparel prices stay 26% higher in the long-run.”
A trade group that represents major brands including Nike and Skechers recently told Reuters that tariffs threatened to jack the price of a $155 running shoe made in Vietnam as high as $220.
Toys
Almost 80% of the toys sold in the U.S. are imported from China, according to the Toy Association. Greg Ahearn, the trade group’s president, told PBS in March that he projected price increases of 15-20% on toys such as games, dolls, race cars.
That was before Trump’s 104% levy on Chinese goods. Basic Fun, a Florida-based toymaker responsible for classic playsets such as Tonka Trucks and Lincoln Logs, told the New York Post on Monday that it was pausing shipments to the U.S. altogether, as passing along those costs to consumers was “impossible.”
Seafood
A seafood dinner could soon become an infrequent luxury. Top fish and shellfish exporters Chile and India were hit with new tariffs of 10% and 26%, respectively.
“About 70 to 80% of the U.S. seafood food supply is imported, and so that is not a number that the U.S. domestic industry can plug,” said Andy Harig, an executive at the Food Industry Association, told Today.com last week. “So you’re going to see that the cost of the seafood department go up.
