How will Trump's new "Liberation Day" tariffs affect the Philadelphia region?
will affect almost every American industry.
The new tariffs Mr. Trump announced on Wednesday, which he dubbed "Liberation Day," will go into effect on April 9. They'll impact
products like electronics, wine and spirits, automobiles and more
.
The imported wine you love from Germany, Italy, France and other European countries? That will face a new 20% reciprocal tariff before it hits the shelves and your glass.
Roger Wilco stores in Camden County, New Jersey, have stocked up as much as they can before Mr. Trump's tariffs take effect by next week.
"There are certain items that we just can't get at the moment," said Ryan Hawkins, who is the manager of Roger Wilco stores. "So there were a lot of international things that we were trying to pull over that just can't get imported."
Mr. Trump is also imposing a 25% tariff on all imported canned beer.
Economic expert Alex Jacquez said Mr. Trump's widespread tariffs are hurting consumer sentiment.
"Consumers are not confident that their finances are going to be better next week, next month, next year, and you're starting to see a pullback in consumer spending," Jacquez said.
Pharmaceutical drugs, one of the nation's top imports, are also facing rising costs.
Large drug distributors may pass those price hikes on to pharmacies, especially for medications from countries like Switzerland, which is subject to a 31% reciprocal tariff under Mr. Trump's plan.
Pharmacist Khai Huynh says small, independent pharmacies like his in Pennsauken will struggle to afford many brand-name and generic prescriptions.
"At the end of the day, you still get the medication," said Huynh, of Lan Phamarcy, said. "I just feel bad for myself and independent pharmacies. They're the ones losing out because the consumers will pay the same price."
"Certainly, some uncertainty in the market, uncertainty in the business community, and eventually businesses don't want to take the hit on this, they don't want this to impact their profit margins," Jacquez said.
Hawkins believes the best he can do as a manager is to offer customers other options.
"Once you break it down and you show them it's nothing else we can do about it, we try to put them on to something new, something you may like," Hawkins said.
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If Trump really switches from buttering up Putin to punishing him, he could hurt Russia, especially with secondary sanctions that bankroll the war by being Moscow's oil exports. But there's a huge problem: That would require the US to directly take on powers such as India and China, risking global economic blowback. With Trump in Scotland, his trade negotiators were in Sweden holding high-level talks with China that could yield another 'win' for his tariff strategy and potentially the spectacle of a presidential visit to Beijing this year. Is he really ready to risk all this for Ukraine — a nation that he thinks has already had too much US aid? A robust move against Putin in the coming days that could also rebound against Xi — even against Trump's own political interests — would show the president is willing not just to lord it over Europeans but to stand up to the most ruthless leaders. Failing to take such action would validate critics who see Trump's irritation at Putin as less about Ukraine's plight than about the embarrassment about the president's Nobel Prize campaign being thwarted by his erstwhile hero. On the surface, Trump pulled off a genuine win against the European Union in the trade deal and for his 'America First' trade policies, which he views as reversing decades of partners taking advantage of the United States in the interest of reviving American manufacturing. The EU chose not to use its own economic might to inflict pain on the US economy. Instead, it accepted a deal that will see the imposition of a 15% tariff on European exports. The backlash was swift. 'An alliance of free peoples, gathered to assert their values and defend their interests, resolves to submission,' French Prime Minister François Bayrou wrote on X. But others saw pragmatism rather than capitulation, because it's becoming clear that tariffs are existential for Trump — as shown by similar levies included in recent trade deals announced with Japan and the Philippines. Europe's already-sluggish economic growth will take a hit. But a trade war would be worse. 'Those who expect a hurricane are grateful for a storm,' said Wolfgang Große Entrup, the head of the German Chemical Industry Association. Trump's estimation that the EU agreement was 'the biggest deal ever' is hyperbole. The short framework is far from a detailed agreement, which may take years to negotiate and thousands of pages to spell out. This all looks like Trump's classic habit of spinning a small breakthrough as a gargantuan win. The framework announcement by the White House is thin and full of conditional language. On closer inspection, it's not clear exactly what the EU has given away. There is no clear indication that the Europeans have ceded to US demands to accept its hormone-treated beef or to ease regulation of Silicon Valley firms. European leaders are playing a long game. A trade war with Trump might have destroyed their efforts to prevent him rupturing the transatlantic alliance, which included a pledge for NATO members to raise defense spending to 5% by 2035 during his last transatlantic trip. It may also not be a coincidence that Trump's change of tack on Ukraine and Gaza — which brought him closer to two critical European foreign policy priorities — came hours after the EU concessions in the trade agreement. Trump's wins are in the open. Europeans are more subtle. Starmer is following the same gameplay. His willingness to check his political dignity at the door each time he meets Trump has yielded a friendship with the president — and a tariff rate of 10%, better than that imposed on the EU. Trump's binary view of a life in pursuit of wins means that he must always come out on top and those on the other side must lose. Eventually, this is bound to alienate some of America's best friends. This doesn't matter in the 'America First' creed, which seeks to leverage US might against smaller nations whether they are allies or adversaries. But US alliances and its leadership of like-minded democracy were the key to Washington's power since the end of World War II. And sometimes the country needs its friends — like after the September 11 attacks in 2001. Trump is burning through American soft power at a frightening rate. And as some of America's traditional allies consider closer ties to China, there are clear signs that Trump's transactional approach could wreak long-term damage. In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, former Bush administration foreign policy official Kori Schake writes that the Trump team is hastening a future in which countries 'opt out of the existing US-led international order or construct a new one that would be antagonistic to American interests.' And it's not even clear that many of Trump's wins will bring greater security at home. After all, by punishing Europe with a 15% tariff on its goods, Trump has imposed yet another consumption tax on Americans. 'It's a number that will hurt both the US and EU economies,' Fredrik Persson, president of BusinessEurope, told CNN's Richard Quest.
