Trump’s tariffs on Canadian imports directly complicate student life
Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.
On July 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 50% tariff on a myriad of imported Canadian products. From clothing and makeup to dairy products and building materials, these tariffs, which went into effect Aug. 22, will directly impact the wallets of everyday Americans and students. They’re a continuation of the Trump Administration’s volatile economic policies.
On Aug. 25, Canada announced retaliatory tariffs ranging from 15-50% on over 600 categories of exports. The tariffs, which will go into effect Sept. 8, are intended to level the playing field between the two nations.
While tariffs are commonly used to build leverage during international negotiations, they’re still a contractionary economic policy. They lead to price hikes on daily household items while simultaneously damaging the job market and siphoning opportunity from those who need it.
Trump has routinely used tariffs as an economic tool to pressure Canadian leaders into more favorable U.S. trade.
“They’ve been ripping us off for decades, and it’s going to stop,” Trump said on Aug. 30. “This should have happened long ago with other Presidents.”
This isn’t any different from Trump’s usual behavior, consistently turning his back on the working class to meet his own selfish desires, even after campaigning on a platform of affordability and stability. He now believes these two concepts are Democratic hoaxes.
On top of this new wave of tariffs, ones from earlier in his term still apply. This means some unlucky products and industries will be hit twice.
Showing our representatives that we reject rising costs as a negotiation tactic will force them to start fighting for us.James Reed, Columnist
New York state manufacturers, in particular, are looking for a swift resolution to rising trade tensions. The state’s manufacturing sector relies heavily on Canadian imports for essential building supplies. Since many products included in the widespread tariffs pertain to building supplies, energy and machinery providers are hoping to limit their financial hit and avoid layoffs.
A major consequence of these new tariffs will also be felt within the auto industry.
Manufacturers such as Honda, Toyota and General Motors rely on their Canadian-based plants to produce parts for some of the most popular cars in the United States. An increase in auto costs would also be devastating to our cost of living, and in a country built around cars, this is a basic necessity. This is especially true for some students, who rely on vehicles to get to class every day.
Students are at the forefront of this affordability crisis. With rising costs of tuition paired with an increasingly unsustainable cost of living, higher education is feeling progressively out of reach for a large portion of American families.
Rather than championing this isolationist form of thinking, students and everyday Americans must start advocating for a collaborative approach to foreign policy. Showing our representatives that we reject rising costs as a negotiation tactic will force them to start fighting for us.
As we near November, now is the time to start doing your research, look into which candidates will focus on improving your lives and make sure to request a mail-in ballot if your primary residence is outside of New York state.
Without exercising our civic duties, we’ll be stuck, buried in rising costs and eventually left behind by politicians who are more concerned with their own pockets than the lives of the constituents they swore to represent.
James Reed is a sophomore studying political science. He can be reached at jcreed@syr.edu.
