Three container ships at a container port.
Trade

State of U.S. Tariffs: July 14, 2025

July 14, 2025
Download the Data

Key Takeaways

  1. The Budget Lab (TBL) estimated the effects all US tariffs and foreign retaliation implemented in 2025 through July 13, including the announced 30% tariffs on the EU and Mexico. TBL will follow up later this week with a sensitivity analysis of the announced 15-20% “reciprocal” tariff. TBL analyzed the July 13 tariff rates as if they stayed in effect in perpetuity.

  2. Current Tariff Rate: Consumers face an overall average effective tariff rate of 20.6%, the highest since 1910. After consumption shifts, the average tariff rate will be 19.7%, the highest since 1933.

  3. Overall Price Level & Distributional Effects: The price level from all 2025 tariffs rises by 2.1% in the short-run, the equivalent of an average per household income loss of $2,800 in 2025$. This assumes the Federal Reserve does not react to tariffs and so the real income adjustment comes primarily through prices rather than nominal incomes; if the Federal Reserve reacted, the adjustment could in part come in the form of lower nominal incomes. Annual pre-substitution losses for households at the bottom of the income distribution are $1,500. The post-substitution price increase settles at 1.8%, a $2,300 loss per household.

  4. Commodity Prices: The 2025 tariffs disproportionately affect clothing and textiles, with consumers facing 44% higher shoe prices and 40% higher apparel prices in the short-run. Shoes and apparel prices stay 20% and 18% higher in the long-run respectively.

  5. Real GDP Effects: US real GDP growth over 2025 is -0.9pp lower from all 2025 tariffs. In the long-run, the US economy is persistently -0.5% smaller, the equivalent of $135 billion annually in 2024$.

  6. Labor Market Effects: The unemployment rate rises 0.5 percentage point by the end of 2025, and payroll employment is 641,000 lower.

  7. Long-Run Sectoral GDP & Employment Effects: In the long-run, tariffs present a trade-off. US manufacturing output expands by 2.6%, but these gains are more than crowded out by other sectors: construction output contracts by 4.1% and agriculture declines by 0.8%.

  8. Fiscal Effects: All tariffs to date in 2025 raise $3.0 trillion over 2026-35, with $487 billion in negative dynamic revenue effects, bringing dynamic revenues to $2.5 trillion.

Changes Since the Last Report

Since the July 11 report:

  • On July 12, President Trump announced 30% tariffs on the EU and Mexico, to go into effect August 1, up from prior 10% and 25% rates respectively.1

TBL analyzes tariffs on a “real-time current policy” basis, where policy as it stands as of date certain is assumed to continue in perpetuity, even if framed as a temporary policy.

Results

The table below summarizes the effects of current tariffs in place as of July 13, assuming they stayed in force indefinitely. 

Average effective tariff rate

The distinction between pre-substitution metrics (before consumers and businesses shift purchases in response to the tariffs) and post-substitution (after they shift) is a crucial one. One metric where the difference is meaningful is the average effective tariff rate.

Measured pre-substitution—assuming there are no shifts in the import shares of different countries—the 2025 tariffs to date (including the ones effective August 1) are the equivalent of a 18.2 percentage point increase in the US average effective tariff rate. That calculation assumes that, for example, the share of imports from China remains at 14%, where it was in 2024. This is the right way to think about the tariffs from the perspective of consumer welfare, since it reflects the full cost faced by consumers before they start making difficult spending choices. This increase would bring the overall US average effective tariff rate to 20.6%, the highest since 1910.

Post-substitution—after imports shift in response to the tariffs—the 2025 tariffs are a 17.3 percentage point increase in the US average effective tariff rate, which brings the overall US effective tariff rate to 19.7%, the highest since 1933.

The timing of the transition from “pre” to “post” substitution is highly uncertain. Some shifts are likely to happen quickly—within days or weeks—while others may take longer.2

Average aggregate price impact

The 2025 tariffs imply an increase in consumer prices of 2.1% in the short-run, assuming no policy reaction from the Federal Reserve and full passthrough of tariffs to consumers. As a result, TBL assumes the real income adjustment comes primarily through prices rather than nominal incomes. If the Federal Reserve reacted, the adjustment could in part come in the form of lower nominal incomes. This is a pre-substitution number that captures consumer welfare effects. It is the equivalent of a short-run income loss3 of $2,800 per household on average in 2025 dollars. The post-substitution price increase settles at 1.8%, a $2,300 short-run loss per household.

US real GDP & labor market effects

All 2025 US tariffs plus foreign retaliation lower real GDP growth by -0.9pp over calendar year 2025 (Q4-Q4). The unemployment rate ends 2025 0.5 percentage point higher, and payroll employment is 641,000 lower that same quarter. The level of real GDP remains persistently -0.45% smaller in the long run, the equivalent of $135 billion 2024$ annually, while exports are -17.5% lower. 

Long-run US sectoral output & employment effects

Tariffs shrink the overall size of the US economy in the long-run by 0.5%, but beneath aggregate GDP they also drive reallocation across US sectors. Long-run output in the manufacturing sector expands by 2.6% under the tariffs, with nonadvanced durable manufacturing output 4.8% larger and nondurable manufacturing 1.4% larger. However, advanced manufacturing is down by 2.9%. Moreover, the expansion of the overall manufacturing sector more than crowds out the rest of the economy: construction contracts by 4.1%, agriculture by 0.8%, and mining & extraction by 1.5%.

Global long-run real GDP effects

Canada has borne the brunt of the damage from US tariffs so far, with its long-run economy -2.0% smaller in real terms (reflecting both US tariffs and Canadian retaliation to date). China’s economy is -0.2% smaller, less than half as large as the hit to the US. The EU economy is 0.1 percentage point larger in the long-run, while the UK’s is 0.2% bigger thanks in part to the benefits of US-UK trade deal.

Fiscal impact & historical context

The 2025 tariffs to date, were they to remain in place (and not expire after 90 days), would raise $3.0 trillion over 2026-35 conventionally-scored ($2.8 trillion over 2025-34).4 Given the negative output effects of the tariffs, there would be additional dynamic reductions in tax revenue as a result. Based on Congressional Budget Office rules-of-thumb, TBL estimates that these effects would total -$487 billion over the decade (-$442 billion over 2025-34), bringing total dynamic revenue to $2.5 trillion over 2026-35 ($2.4 trillion over 2025-34).

Short-run distributional impact

Tariffs are a regressive tax, especially in the short-run. This means that tariffs burden households at the bottom of the income ladder more than those at the top as a share of income. The regressivity is about the same when looking at all 2025 tariffs: the short-run burden on the 1st decile is more than 3x that of the top decile (-3.9% versus -1.1%). The average annual cost to households in the 1st and top decile rise to $1,500 and $5,700 respectively in 2025$. The median cost is $2,500 per household.

Tariffs are more distributionally-ambiguous in the longer-run. Tariffs reduce both labor income and above-normal returns to capital, or rents. We assume that owners of capital hold rents rather than consume them in the short-run, but do consume them over their lifecycle in the long-run. The implication is that the tariff burden is more regressive in the short-run and more evenly-distributed across households in the long-run 

Commodity price effects

The charts below show how the 2.1% price level increase from the 2025 tariffs to date would look across individual commodities in the short-run (pre-substitution), as well as the 1.8% long-run price increase (post-substitution). Some high level takeaways:

  • Consumers face high increases in clothing and textile prices in the short-run: prices increase 44% for leather products (shoes and hand bags), 40% for apparel, and 21% for textiles. After substitution and global supply shifts in the long-run, prices remain 20%, 18%, and 11% higher, respectively.
  • Food prices rise 4.1% in the short-run and stay 3.3% higher in the long-run. Fresh produce is initially 7.0% more expensive while stabilizing at 3.9% higher.
  • Motor vehicle prices rise 14.1% in the short-run and 10.3% in the long-run, the equivalent of an additional $6,800 and $4,900 respectively to the price of an average 2024 new car.

Footnotes

  1. TBL assumes the new 30% Mexican rate replaces the 25% rate and has all of the same exemptions and stacking principles as prior, e.g. the USMCA exemption as well as the stacking order laid out in Executive Order 14289. As with the other tariffs through letters issued July 7 & 9, TBL assumes the 30% EU tariff has the same scope & exemptions as the prior 10% “reciprocal” tariff.
  2. TBL assumes throughout its tariff analysis that the transition to longer-run GTAP equilibria occurs after three years.
  3. TBL defines “income” as CBO-concept post-tax-and-transfer income. “Short-run” refers to the effect over the next couple of years; TBL proxies for this definition by using CBO projections of the distribution of income in 2027, expressed in 2025 dollars.
  4. TBL employs a “relaxed conventional” assumption for the retaliation scenario, whereby foreign income is permitted to fall but US income remains fixed.