In an effort to “take back our economic sovereignty,” President Donald Trump has raised tariffs, and thereby raised concern amongst many Americans about the future of the economy.

President Trump announced on April 2 that he would impose a 10% tariff on all countries, as well as individualized reciprocal higher tariffs on the countries with which the United States has the largest trade deficits. These new tariffs took effect a few days later, sending the stock market into the red and leaving business owners and consumers concerned about the state of trade and the risk of a recession. However, Trump announced on Wednesday, April 9, that he would pause the tariffs at 10% for 90-days for countries that had been open to negotiation. Countries not open to negotiation (most notably, China) are seeing rates increase even further. This announced pause led to markets jumping back up, but overall things remain unstable as this uncertainty looms over everyone.

While these decisions are being made in D.C., communities around the world are feeling their effects, and Fayetteville is no exception. Local economic experts Dr. Jeremy Jackson, Distinguished Professor of Economics at Fayetteville State University, and Dr. Matthew Dobra, Professor of Economics and the Nimocks Endowed Professor of Business in the Reeves School of Business at Methodist University, both spoke with GFBJ about the implications of these tariffs and ways to navigate these tumultuous times.

“I think we need to start with asking the question of, what is it that the administration actually wants? And even that is difficult to know the answer to, because they say things like, ‘We want more tax revenue from tariffs, but we also want to bring jobs back to America.’ But those two things are incongruent, because if you bring these jobs back to America, then we're not importing as much stuff, and therefore the cash revenue isn't going to be there. And so, the things that he [Trump] is saying he wants from all of this don't necessarily mesh. And I think that there's a part of that that's actually by design. My guess is that he's surrounded by enough economists who are going to tell him that tariffs, generally speaking, are not good for an economy. They're not good for the consumers. They might be good for certain producers in America, but they're unilaterally bad for American consumers. And so I don't think that ultimately, he would be being advised by very many people to have big tariffs and have them long term,” shared Dr. Dobra. 

Tariffs are like a tax. They are a tax on importing and when businesses incur a higher cost to produce goods that cost is most often then passed onto the consumer, resulting in higher prices. 

According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, in 2024, North Carolina exported a record $42.8 billion of goods to the world. In 2022, exports from North Carolina supported an estimated 145 thousand jobs. 

“The reality is, if you look at the data, the United States is manufacturing just about as much as it ever had. We are not in a world where manufacturing has left the United States. We make a lot of stuff. What is true is that we make a lot of stuff using a lot less labor. So the amount of people that are employed in manufacturing has decreased over time. That's because of technology,” shared Dr. Jackson. 

Furthermore, companies source labor from other countries because it is often cheaper. 

“The most recent data that I was able to locate was that in 2023 the Fayetteville metropolitan area had $297.5 million worth of exports… so, if we do talk about a world in which we're in a trade war, that will reduce our ability to sell our products that we produce in Fayetteville to other countries. So those tariffs have the ability to damage some of our businesses that are here in Fayetteville. The state of North Carolina, and this shouldn't be surprising to most people, but the [state’s] main exports go to Canada is number one, China is number two, Mexico is number three, but that means entering into a trade war with with China has the potential to hurt exporters in the state of North Carolina. So it's hard to know how much these will impact, but you can imagine, if there's even a reduction in a couple of million dollars worth of profits due to the tariffs, that's jobs that can get lost,” shared Dr. Jackson.

Additionally, many “made in America” items are manufactured using materials that are sourced from other countries.

“When you have something that says ‘made in America’ on it, that doesn't always mean that every single thing that you're buying was made in America. It's very often full of items that have been imported by businesses that they then use to make their stuff. So businesses are going to be impacted by these tariffs, [by] this increased cost of bringing in raw materials that they need to produce they're made in America items” shared Dr. Jackson 

Both economists agreed that it is difficult to say with certainty how exactly prices will be affected and what items will see the biggest change, but the general consensus is that items such as perishable goods, electronics and automobiles are some of the products that are most likely to see price hikes due to tariffs.

“...there's just so much uncertainty. And I hate to say that the answer is, be cautious, but that might be the prudent thing to do," remarked Dr. Dobra. 

As the administration continues to share updates regarding tariffs and other decisions that are directly related to the economy, GFBJ will continue to work with local experts to keep our readers informed.