Josh Shapiro hammers Trump’s erratic tariff policies

Gov. Josh Shapiro claimed that President Donald Trump “blinked” after mounting pressure forced him to walk back and pause many of his tariffs on Wednesday. 

While Democrats around the country are having a hard time figuring out their messaging against President Donald Trump’s tariffs, Gov. Josh Shapiro is taking a pretty simple approach.

Tariffs are bad and here’s why. 

Over the past couple of weeks, Shapiro has relentlessly criticized Trump, and his push to place across the board tariffs on most imports, by meeting with brewery operators, small business owners, and union workers over the past week. 

“ You do not need a degree in economics in order to make sense of what is about to occur. A tariff is a tax and it increases the price for consumers and for businesses,” Shapiro said while visiting Fegley’s Brew Works on April 2, the day Trump originally announced his expanded tariffs. 

“ The aluminum that the beer comes in, in that can — the Trump administration has already implemented a 25% tariff on aluminum that comes from Canada and other countries… So when aluminum is harder to find or more expensive to buy, that drives up the cost of producing your favorite local beer,” Shapiro added. 

A tariff is essentially a tax on imports coming from other countries, which is then passed onto consumers. If a product that costs $100 is hit with a 10% or 20% tariff, consumers would end up paying more for that product. 

Trump paused many of his tariffs for the next three months after a market collapse and mounting backlash, but most countries are still left with a 10% tariff on their exports to the US, while China faces 145% tariffs for retaliating against Trump, according to NPR. 

Shapiro criticized Trump’s erratic flip-flopping during a press conference at the Port of Philadelphia on Thursday. 

“ The president just yesterday blinked and removed some of the tariffs that he imposed, but despite all of that chaos, the fact remains that the tariffs in place today affecting this port, affecting the people of Pennsylvania, affecting the global economy are much higher than any tariffs that were in place 75 days ago before this president took office,” Shapiro said. 

Shapiro went on to say that under Trump, US tariffs on other countries are the highest they’ve been in the past 100 years, and they include a 10% tariff on goods such as aluminum, steel, and food products coming from Latin America. He also noted that foreign cars coming into the Port of Philadelphia are subject to a 25% tariff. 

“ Those tax increases, along with the chaos of the past week, have upended global trade, and our markets are still reeling from the uncertainty. This is going to have a real and negative impact on Pennsylvanians,” Shapiro said.