Trade analyst: Tariffs cost Americans $200 billion a year, add $147 to school supplies

The Center Square’s Greg Bishop spoke Thursday with Bryan Riley, director of the National Taxpayers Union’s Free Trade Initiative, on The Center Square’s news show “The States” about how tariffs are affecting the economy.

“Almost everything is driven up by the cost of tariffs,” Riley told Bishop. 

But costs aren’t driven up uniformly, Riley said. Tariffs impact some goods more than others.

“In some cases, it’s a big chunk. For clothing, it's a big chunk. In other cases, it’s kind of like getting nickel-and-dimed. Everything, almost everything, costs a little bit more, and it’s a policy that really hurts those lower income households the most, who are least able to afford the cost of the tariffs,” Riley said.

The National Taxpayers Union calculated the added cost to some common kids’ items around this time of year – things like new shoes for sports, calculators, notebooks, writing utensils and new clothes.

On average, tariffs have added $18.80 to the cost of sports footwear, $4.90 to calculators, $0.85 to notebooks and $5.13 to clothing. The average cost of writing utensils increased slightly, from $0.1 to $0.5.  

“One of the defenses of these tariffs historically has been, ‘Oh, it's just a little bit, and you won't even notice it when you buy that can of food and when you buy that pack of pencils. But it all adds up,” Riley said.

And that added cost can be especially substantial when the buyer is a school district, which is supported by taxpayer dollars.

“Go to the grocery store, buy a can of beans. It's not going to affect you much. But if you're a school district and you're feeding thousands of kids, that really affects your bottom line, and it directly comes out of the taxpayers’ wallet,” Riley said. 

Bishop also spoke to economist Orphe Divounguy after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its Personal Income and Outlays report for July.

Divounguy confirmed what consumers are feeling: Costs are rising. 

“The average household is spending roughly $2,900 more per year to buy the same basket of goods than they did a year ago,” Divounguy said.

But Divounguy also noted other factors besides tariffs. 

“You have record government spending that’s pushing interest rates higher. You have the war on the other side of the world that’s affecting oil prices,” Divounguy said. 

“If you look at the overall economy right now, if you look at Q2 GDP numbers, what you see is that outside of AI spending, the AI build-out, there isn't much else growing in this economy anymore, and I think that is concerning,” Divounguy said. “Unless you get relief on the tariff front, unless you get relief on the gas front and oil, the energy front, unless you get government to make some adjustments that will result in lower interest rates, not higher interest rates, the consumer is going to continue to feel the pinch.”