WASHINGTON – Flanked by American flags and steel and auto workers, President Donald Trump announced a 10% baseline tariff on imports from all countries on “Liberation Day,” earning praise from Alabama Republicans.
The new tariffs are Trump’s latest move to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States, but economists warn the tariffs will raise prices for consumers.
“It’s our declaration of economic independence,” Trump said. “For years, hardworking American citizens 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.”
In addition to the 10% tariff on all countries set to start Saturday, Trump also imposed higher tariffs on countries that have the largest trade deficits with the United States. The higher tariffs will start on April 9. Trump held up a chart during Wednesday’s press conference in the Rose Garden detailing the higher tariff rates for certain countries. Imports from China will have a 34% tariff and imports from the European Union will have a 20% tariff.
U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., said Trump’s vision will help more Alabamians achieve the American dream.
“Leveling that playing field, putting American workers on the same footing as other people — that is critically important,” Britt told Alabama Daily News.
Agnitra Roy Choudhury, associate professor of economics at Auburn University at Montgomery, said tariffs can work if the United States can tolerate higher prices for the short term.
“I would probably speculate that businesses will face the first signal, essentially, and then it’s going to be consumers because the businesses that are importing raw materials for their production process, they are going to feel the pinch a lot earlier before they can pass on that cost to the consumers,” Roy Choudhury told ADN.
An ardent supporter of Trump’s agenda, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., acknowledged that there will be “short-term pain” with higher prices but said the tariffs are a necessary tool.
“Tariffs are our only chance to get industry back in this country, get domestic workers here to get them back employed and to make sure that we are able to start paying down our debt,” Tuberville said.
Roy Choudhury said bringing back businesses to the United States can spur growth. However, there would probably need to be some adjustment in how companies operate domestically to make it work long term.
“There are different regulations that make production cheaper elsewhere, so if you want to bring them back, you either have to be willing to pay the higher price of doing business here, or you have to change policies to make it cheaper here,” he said. “So I don’t think in the long run tariffs itself is going to make any real difference.”
Roy Choudhury also said that because the United States imports more than it exports, other countries could come to the table sooner if they feel the impacts of the tariffs in a big way.
“I think that even though other countries, they retaliate against our tariffs, the tariffs on their products will be a bigger pinch for these economies,” he said.
When asked if he had any concerns about tariffs raising prices, U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, told ADN that “in the long run, tariffs will be better for the American people.”
“They’ll lower costs and create good jobs,” Moore said.
However, Democrats aren’t as confident about the possible benefits. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, said that her constituents will not be liberated.
“We all know that tariffs are just another word for a tax, and that tax is going to be passed on to the consumers, the folks in my district can ill afford to have the price of the food that they consume, the cars that they (put gas in)… all go up because of these tariffs,” Sewell told ADN.
Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Birmingham, said he expects manufacturing to adjust and said Trump was driven to impose tariffs on countries because they have taken advantage of the United States in the past.
Trump also previously announced he will place 25% tariffs on auto imports, which will start Thursday. The White House hopes these tariffs “will spur growth.”
Motor vehicle parts and oil and gas are the most common imports in Alabama from Mexico. Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Hyundai and Mazda-Toyota all manufacture vehicles in Alabama.
In 2019 when Trump also proposed auto tariffs, Sewell led a bipartisan letter opposing them out of concern that they would “raise prices, hurt consumers and manufacturers, and weaken our economy.” She said that was still true this year in a post on X.
On the agricultural side, Tuberville touted the 46% tariffs on imports from Vietnam and 26% tariffs on India that will help Alabama’s catfish and shrimp farmers.
“U.S. catfish and shrimp producers have faced some of the worst blows,” Tuberville said on the Senate floor. “For example, Vietnam is dumping billions – I repeat, billions – of pounds of catfish, and India is dumping billions of pounds of shrimp every year in the U.S. markets, flooding the markets and reducing the price for our quality domestic products. It’s devastating.”
More than 80% of catfish imported to the United States comes from China and Vietnam, according to the Catfish Institute. Alabama catfish farmer Denzil Dees previously told Alabama Daily News that tariffs on foreign fish would “help us tremendously.”
This story was updated Friday afternoon to include additional comments from Roy Choudhury.