BELLS, BILLS AND TARIFFS - THE NEW COST OF HOLIDAYS

By Victoria Rivera

Our holiday gift-giving may come with a higher price tag than ever before if the U.S. Supreme Court doesn’t push back on rising tariffs.

According to the Pew Research Center, President Trump’s approval among the youth has plummeted to 41% over the course of his presidency. You’d need to look no further than his new implementation of tariffs to see why: his promises of lowered

groceries have gone unfulfilled. Instead, the cost of living has risen, and Americans are forced to rethink just how much Christmas spirit they can afford. The Supreme Court, for many, is their last hope.

"Audience greets political leaders" Photo Credit to Wikimedia Commons

Before the “Tariff War,” the U.S. was the second largest trading nation in the world as well as the largest importer period. Many goods in America, such as cars, toys and tools, are often sourced from other countries.

There’s a reason why so many products, including holiday favorites like the Xbox and the PlayStation, are labeled as being made in China. Goods made abroad can often be made in bulk for far cheaper than they are in America, as there are more people willing to work for lower wages. With the labor costing as little as it does abroad, it can then be sold for a lower price which makes imported products cheaper than they would be if produced and sold domestically.

Photo Credit to Wikimedia Commons

Due to this import-heavy economy, taxes on imports were kept low to encourage trading and keep these goods affordable. However, President Trump believes the deficit between buying foreign products compared to American-made ones has grown

too broad.

In his announcement on April 2 at the Rose Garden, he said, “We cannot pay the deficits of Canada, Mexico and so many other countries. We used to do it; we can't do it anymore… our trade deficit reached a record $1.2 trillion, which is unheard of, since the beginning of NAFTA, the worst trade deal ever made.”

The idea behind it is that he would place reciprocal taxes on countries that place tariffs on American goods. It would put pressure to remove these taxes altogether while also encouraging the American people to buy other U.S. products. Yet, Trump placed

tariffs on countries that either had no taxes on imports to begin with, such as Israel, and countries that’ve never traded with America in the first place. This includes the Heard and McDonald Islands, the Australian territories which have a grand total of zero human inhabitants.

Curiously, Trump also believes that placing tariffs on legal goods can combat the illegal drug trade.

The official White House website stated, “The extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl, constitutes a national emergency under

the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA).”

The need to “halt illegal immigration” and keep them from smuggling drugs (fentanyl specifically) turned the tariffs into an act of revenge. It’s described as a means of holding the countries “accountable” and directly calls access to the American market as a privilege. It acknowledges that the economy used to run off trades, and it used to have some of the lowest tariff rates globally, but fighting back through tariffs

is a noble goal here.

Since Trump has proposed his plan, he has set tariffs as high as 50% on foreign imports. As proven by how most basic food items like eggs in the grocery store have doubled in price, Trump’s policies have backfired massively for the average citizen. Instead of encouraging internal trading or other countries to drop their taxes, there has only been a rise in retaliation taxes. Who were once America’s greatest trade allies– Mexico, Canada, and much of the EU– have now raised their own tariffs against American steel and aluminum.

"Trump and Xi Jinping" Photo Credit to Wikimedia Commons

In contrast, China, another one of the U.S.’s greatest allies in trade for many years, has managed to haggle down the 57% tariff rate to 47%. As of Nov. 1, both sides' retaliatory taxes on each other will be dropped, and China will import crops from

America. The current plan is to order 12 million metric tons after not buying any American soybeans for the entirety of September, then they would progressively buy more in the following three years. In kind, they also agreed to help in the “war” against fentanyl by trying to strengthen regulation and work with U.S. law enforcement when necessary

Where the truce remains unsteady, the greatest relief can be found at home. On Aug. 29, Trump’s tariffs had been dubbed unconstitutional by the lower courts. Taxation like this cannot be implemented by an executive power and instead must be un- ambiguously passed by Congress.

While Trump claims IEEPA gives him the power to levy taxes as he pleases, the Court of Appeals declared that “the statute bestows significant authority on the President to undertake a number of actions in response to a declared national emergency, but none of these actions explicitly include the power to impose tariffs… It

seems unlikely that Congress intended… [to] grant the President unlimited authority to impose tariffs.”

Not only does IEEPA not give the president any such powers, but it’s unlikely that the “fentanyl emergency” would be considered justified enough to warrant such

heavy taxations on every country.

While the economy won’t instantly recover overnight, a Supreme Court ruling against Trump could bring prices down enough to save Christmas.