Tariffs Have Hurt, Not Helped, the U.S. Economy |
Ongoing reports and analysis
The U.S. economy, after a tumultuous year of tariffs and trade wars, appears to have performed better than feared earlier in the year, with annual GDP growth through the third quarter of about 2 percent, including a surprisingly healthy bump in the last reported quarter.
But that, contrary to what U.S. President Donald Trump says, is not because of tariffs but in spite of them. And 2026 looks set to be an even rockier year on the trade front, with further negative implications for U.S. economic performance.
The U.S. economy, after a tumultuous year of tariffs and trade wars, appears to have performed better than feared earlier in the year, with annual GDP growth through the third quarter of about 2 percent, including a surprisingly healthy bump in the last reported quarter.
But that, contrary to what U.S. President Donald Trump says, is not because of tariffs but in spite of them. And 2026 looks set to be an even rockier year on the trade front, with further negative implications for U.S. economic performance.
Third-quarter economic growth was the fastest in two years, but it couldn’t hide a number of worrying signs about the negative impacts that Trump’s tariffs have had on broad swaths of the economy. What all those tariffs—some levied on the whole world, others on particular countries, and still others on an ever-growing list of specific sectors—have in common is higher prices for producers and consumers as well as a discouraging effect on new investment by businesses, which can never be sure if the tariffs will remain in place, or at what level.........