Tariff worries hit record high amid coronavirus outbreak – By Dion Rabouin (Axios) / April 8 2020
How concerned are you about the impact of recent trade policies and tariffs on your household expenses?
Concern about President Trump’s tariffs on U.S imports grew to record high levels among Americans last month, particularly as more lost their jobs and concern about the novel coronavirus increased.
Driving the news: About seven in 10 people said they were at least somewhat concerned about tariffs in March, according to the latest survey from CivicScience provided first to Axios.
- That’s the highest number reported since the company started tracking the data.
Why it matters: As the Fed has cut U.S. interest rates to zero and provided trillions of dollars in support to markets and Congress approved a $2.2 trillion relief package, the tariffs have offset some of that support by adding a massive tax on American businesses and individuals, experts say.
- “The economy continues to be hampered by tariffs,” Tendayi Kapfidze, chief economist at Lending Tree, told Axios.
The big picture: The tariffs have wiped out the lion’s share of average American households’ savings from the 2017 tax cut, as Bloomberg noted in June.
- And the president’s tariffs rank “as one of the biggest tax increases in decades,” CNBC reported in May, citing data from the Treasury Department.
How it works: “The stimulus bill includes $290 billion in direct checks to consumers, but a lot of that will be going right back to the Treasury due to tariffs,” Kapfidze said.
Continue to article: https://www.axios.com/tariff-worries-record-high-coronavirus-outbreak-d38f9dc4-f6c0-4323-a3bd-57e83abaaa08.html
