Proposed new tariffs have business owners moving with caution
GOLDEN TRIANGLE, MISS. (WCBI) – Since President Trump took office, he has been issuing a flurry of Executive Orders.
Some of the most recent ones imposed new tariffs on 3 of the United States’ largest trading partners: Canada, China, and Mexico.
Currently, the steepest import tax is a 25 percent fee on goods from Canada.
Canada is one of the country’s biggest trading partners.
The new tariffs could affect your prices for oil, lumber, and other products.
“This can result in higher cost and that higher cost can depress business investment,” Kathleen Thomas said.
President Donald Trump has taken executive action that could have a deep impact on the nation’s economy.
New tariffs proposed on three of the United States’ largest trading partners: Canada, China, and Mexico, could result in lower supplies and higher prices on goods coming from those countries.
With Canada being targeted, oil, steel, and lumber could be some of the products that may be more difficult to obtain.
Jack Chilcutt with New Home Building Stores said those in the lumber industry will approach the potential change with caution.
“This isn’t our first time to go through this during his first term we had the same issues then,” Chilcutt said. “Right now pretty much everybody is sitting back taking a wait-and-see look. The lumber market today’s future went way up but that’s kind of a guessing game. A lot of people just do a lot of trading and stuff which doesn’t necessarily impact our cash market.”
President Trump is taking the economic actions to increase leverage in limiting immigration and drugs coming into the U.S. from its neighboring countries.
MSU professor of Economics, Dr. Kathleen Thomas has some suggestions for consumers.
“There’s so much uncertainty about this situation,” Thomas said. “Obviously it’s very fluid so I understand it’s hard to make both decisions for your household or your business in times of uncertainty like this. But, I would say if there are some large ticket purchases that you might can lock down now that might be something to consider.”
Chilcutt said business owners would do well to remain patient.
“Once again nobody is getting that excited, we’ve been through this before,” Chilcutt said. “We just got to take a wait and see attitude. If it does happen, it’ll happen but nobody’s jumping the gun and just going out and loading the wagon and taking a risk on it. So don’t get excited about it, it’s going to all work out good.”
There has been a 30 day pause on the tariffs for Mexico and Canada.
