Let’s Talk Tariffs, Daily Brief April 17, 2025.

You may have read a lot in the news recently about tariffs. Especially, since US President Donald Trump boastfully announced import tariffs many on goods from virtually every country on April 2.   

Many were above 40 percent, although a week later he “paused” these tariffs above a baseline 10 percent except for China.  

Let’s talk tariff basics: Tariffs are charged on goods bought from other countries. Typically, they are a percentage of a product's value. They can be an important tool for protecting or developing domestic industries, but they also can raise prices.  

The tariffs are getting a lot of attention for upending the global economy these days, but they are part of a bigger economic and - also - human rights story.  

The promise to reshape the economy, central to Trump’s reelection campaign, tapped into a pervasive sense among many US voters that they were being financially cheated by wages not keeping up with rising prices.  

The new tariffs illustrate the danger of pursuing economic reforms without regard for people’s human rights.  

Economies should be transformed to ensure everyone can enjoy their rights to food, housing, health care, education, social security, and other economic, social and cultural rights: But Trump’s approach gives no evident consideration to these or any rights.  

The tariffs are so broad that many economists expect them to be inflationary, hurting those struggling the most.   

Not only is there no plan to help with the immediate negative impact on people (goods costing more), but the tariffs are also combined with policies already making things harder for many.  

The Trump administration has slashed billions in spending and fired thousands of public employees, many of whom are Black, decimated programs vital for health care, education, and other rights.  

At the same time anti-corruption rules have been weakened and tax cuts for the wealthiest are being pushed through.  

These measures are the opposite of an economy aligned with human rights – or also called a human rights economy, that bases economic decisions on their impact on people’s welfare and the planet.  

You can apply that to tariffs. Here is how: By carefully weighing the risk of increasing prices on necessities like food and housing against the potential benefits.   

Tariff policies should be part of a wider set of reforms that advances rights. For example, using new income to strengthen public services and social security.  

And this is exactly what the US should be doing. Because the problem is not that the country is being ripped off by foreign countries and immigrants, as Trump contends. Everyone in the US is entitled to a living wage, access to health care, and adequate housing.  

This is solvable without making lives harder for people, it’s solvable with a human rights economy.