Businesses throughout the country are reevaluating their costs and prices after a newly imposed temporary 10% tax on imports, imposed by President Donald Trump, went into effect Tuesday.
The tariffs were first announced as an executive order during a press conference held by Trump Friday. This came following an initial proposal — also by Trump — which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. The initial proposal saw a 6-3 ruling Friday.
The current act will remain effective for up to 150 days unless extended by Congress.
Diego Andrades, the assistant director of the Center for the Political Future, said the tariffs may cause lasting financial impacts on Los Angeles residents.
“Adding in these new costs on top of that might exacerbate existing fiscal problems,” Andrades said. “It could have a real long-term impact, especially when the fiscal standing of the city is not very healthy right now.”
Some students told Annenberg Media last March — only a few months into Trump’s implementation of steep global tariffs — that they felt the impact of the tariffs on grocery prices.
A New York Times report on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that grocery prices rose 2.4% nationwide over the past year, partly due to tariffs.
“I definitely noticed a price difference. Things are going up,” said Parker Goodwin, a freshman studying choral music. “It speaks to a much bigger issue going on right now. I feel like it’s the current administration not really putting the people first.”
Many local businesses are paying more for their supplies, and some have had to pass those costs to customers to avoid taking a major hit.
“The tariffs are killing us because we can’t raise our prices,” said Rafi Dekrmnjian of Rafi’s Pastry and Cake Corp in an interview with ABC7. “The clients think that we are raising prices, but [we’re] not. It’s the [price of] ingredients coming in from Europe that are being raised.”
Andrades said he thinks the tariffs previously in place affected Los Angeles the most. The increased price of building materials makes it harder for the city to follow through with projects, especially in instances where costs are significantly higher than initially projected during planning.
“We’re probably going to start seeing these prices rise again, despite the Supreme Court’s ruling that [Trump] was not using the constitutional authority to impose tariff power,” Andrades said.
He maintained that the global tariffs make it difficult to track how the cost of specific imported goods will change. The new tariffs do not target specific countries or their respective industries, and are more wide-reaching.
“Trade is so global, residents across the city and across the state are feeling [tariffs] every day, when they’re going to the grocery store [or] going to buy things for their daily use,” Andrades said. “It’s affecting the amount of money [companies are] paying, and they have to pass that price on to their consumers.”
Andrades said money and resources supporting services such as public transportation will be further strained as the city navigates a tight budget and rising costs due to the new tariffs.
“Anything the council and this mayor had done to mitigate those [financial] issues might not be enough, because they weren’t planning on more tariffs to persist,” Andrades said. “In the event that they weren’t, it could affect the ability for the city to do its regular business.”