- Trump picked Sen. JD Vance as his running mate, shedding more light on his policy platform.
- Both Trump and Vance have supported strong tariffs on China to promote domestic manufacturing.
- Biden and some economists have said Trump's tariff policies would raise prices for consumers.
Former President Donald Trump has finally announced his running mate — and his choice means you'll likely hear a lot about tariffs on China in the coming months.
On Monday, Trump announced that Sen. JD Vance — a Republican from Ohio — was his vice-presidential pick. Vance, who previously described himself as a "Never Trump Republican," quickly aligned himself with Trump and GOP values once he took office in January 2023, embracing conservative views on issues including higher education, immigration, and tariffs.
The latter is an issue on which Vance and Trump particularly agree. Tariffs, or taxes on goods imported from another country, are intended to raise government revenue and bolster domestic manufacturing. As president, Trump was staunchly protectionist and used tariffs to enforce his "America First" policies — he imposed a series of tariffs on China that ultimately led to a trade war between the two economies.
Should Trump secure a second term, Americans would likely see a lot more action on that front. Vance has previously advocated for tougher trade policies against China, telling CBS News in May that "if you apply tariffs, really what it is, is you're saying that we're going to penalize you for using slave labor in China and importing that stuff in the United States."
"What you end up doing is you end up making more stuff in America, in Pennsylvania, in Ohio, and in Michigan," he added.
While Trump touted his tariffs as necessary to promote manufacturing in the US, a major consequence of his actions was higher prices for Americans due to less competition from foreign producers. According to the Tax Foundation, Trump's tariffs raised taxes by nearly $80 billion.
While President Joe Biden has kept most of Trump's tariff policies in place — in May, he announced an $18 billion tariff increase on Chinese goods, which increased taxes by $3.6 billion, the Tax Foundation said in June — Trump has even more planned in his new platform.
It means voters are likely to hear the two candidates sparring over trade policy in the months to come — and it could have significant implications for Americans already struggling with high inflation.
"I certainly agree that we need to apply some broad-based tariffs, especially on goods coming in from China and not just solar panels and EV stuff," Vance told CBS. "We need to protect American industries from all of the competition."
Trump vs. Biden on tariffs
If Trump wins the election, he wants to impose a 10% tariff on goods coming into the US and a 60% tariff on all imports from China.
Biden criticized that policy in June during the first presidential debate, saying that Trump was "calling for a 10% tariff on everything Americans buy, including food from overseas, vegetables, and other necessities."
"Economists tell us that that would cost the average American working family another $2,500 a year," Biden said. While estimates have varied on the impact the tariff increase would have on American families, 16 Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economists signed a letter at the end of June saying they're "deeply concerned" about the effect Trump's policies would have on the economy.
"Those tariffs overwhelmingly get passed on to consumers and increasing their prices and get fed down the supply chain — again, increasing prices to consumers," Joseph Stiglitz, who led the letter, previously told BI.
Biden's tariff policies have been more targeted than Trump's. In May, he called for tariffs on electric vehicles, steel, and aluminum coming from China and an increase in the tariff rate on semiconductors from 25% to 50% in 2025.
Both candidates have advocated for tariffs and promoted domestic manufacturing, but Trump and Vance would likely act much more aggressively on the issue if they won — meaning consumers might be on track for even higher prices.
