Consumerism is as American as apple pie. What happens when the daily containers of cheap goods on which this culture is based on are no longer steaming towards our ports? All Americans will be effected by this.
That the current administration wants to, in effect, institute a policy of import substitution industrialisation is quite baffling. Many countries have tried this in the past, leading to inferior locally produced goods, hyper-inflation and loss of international competitiveness in formerly strong sectors.
The retail industry is already feeling huge effects from this tariff policy. Temu and Shein are dramatically raising prices and Amazon was adding a 'tariff charge' line to its billing until the US administration strong-armed them into dropping it. Locally, I was just at the hardware shop and noticed that individual pluming fixtures were only about 50% available.
I suspect that the policy will be unceremoniously deconstructed bit by bit until nothing is left of the tariff plan once more Americans see these changes first-hand in their daily purchasing. The damage will be done, however, and although this will hurt the entire global trade system, other countries will be able to step in as reliable partners and benefit from this lack of trust in the USA. We are already seeing a deep destruction of 'brand America' in the automobile sector with new car sales in Europe and I suspect this will spread to other purchasing decisions.
