Per PBS News, on Feb. 1, 2025, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14195, EO 14194, and EO 14193 to impose tariffs on imported goods from Mexico, Canada and China. Shortly after this, there was a 30-day pause placed on the tariffs for Mexico and Canada as they were able to negotiate with President Trump, but not China. On Feb. 4, 10% tariffs on Chinese imports were put into action, and then on Feb. 13, reciprocal tariffs on China were announced.
On April. 2, 2025, President Donald Trump announced he would be imposing global reciprocal tariffs at a White House Rose Garden ceremony declaring it “Liberation Day.” At this ceremony, he instituted a 10% baseline tariff for imported goods into the United States. Furthermore, Trump enacted higher tariffs on countries where the United States had the largest trade deficits.
Just hours after the reciprocal tariffs began, they were suspended for a 90-day period following a stock market crash and retaliation from countries that were receiving the highest rates. This did not affect the 10% baseline previously declared. On April 10, 2025, the White House confirmed there would be a 145% tariff on China due to their retaliatory tariffs on the US.
Trump’s plan is to make production more common inside the United States. Trump believes by imposing tariffs this will make US production of certain materials go up and open job opportunities in many industries. Some people believe this will happen.
“Totally… it creates more job opportunities because it demands more of our workers in America, so that demand is gonna be needed to be met in order for there to be a change,” sophomore Felix Ramsey said.
Others are not so sure.
“I don’t think it’ll happen immediately… and I think that a lot of people are gonna suffer before it helps,” senior Emily Fouts said.
These tariffs have created tension with other countries due to materials costing more to import into the United States. Many believe that these could have negative effects.
“I think that we are making our allies upset with this,” senior Emily Fouts said.
Others think there are both positives and negatives to come from these tensions.
“No matter what we do as a country, we’re always gonna increase tensions… the countries that respect us, it’ll create positive tensions and then countries that fear us, I mean, there is a chance that creates negative tensions,” sophomore Felix Ramsey said.
These tariffs have sparked global discussion and many different opinions are being presented on both sides of the political spectrum. This often makes it hard for anyone to see any positives or any negatives to the tariffs depending on what side they lean. But some are still able to do it.
“I think there’s pros and cons to them,” junior Jillian De Los Angeles said.
Tariffs are a focus of President Trump’s administration right now, and only time will tell on what global effects these will cause.
