Trump trade policies cost Americans billions every month, study shows

US income losses soar amid trade wars and increasing tariffs

Donald Trump's trade policies are adversely impacting Americans to the tune of more than a billion dollars a month, according to a new study.

The president’s tariffs and other hard-line policies put forth by his administration have reduced US income by nearly $1.4bn (£1bn) each month, according to the joint study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York along with Columbia University and Princeton University.

The three research groups behind the study looked at available data dating back to November of last year, noting “substantial increases” in the cost of imported goods facing the newly-imposed tariffs.

“Economists have long argued that there are real income losses from import protection,” the researchers said in a statement accompanying the study’s release. “Using the evidence to date from the 2018 trade war, we find empirical support for these arguments.”

“Losses mounted steadily over the year, as each wave of tariffs affected additional countries and products, and increased substantially after the imposition of the wave 6 tariffs on $200bn (£151.5bn) of Chinese exports.”

During the period of January through November of last year, researchers said total US income losses soared to approximately $6.9bn (£5.2bn).

That’s a conservative estimate according to economic experts, as CNBC noted in its report on the study published Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the president said tariffs could stay in place even after finalising a trade deal with China in order to make sure Beijing “lives by the deal.”

He said negotiations were “coming along nicely” and that White House officials were discussing holding the tariffs in place for a “substantial period of time,” noting China had previously had “problems living by certain deals.”

While his tit-for-tat tariff exchange with China has alarmed economists, the president did receive a win by using the tactic during negotiations to revise the North American Free Trade Agreement, which has been updated to the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.