Economist warns consumers on the impacts of President Trump's tariffs

Daraius Irani is the chief economist at the Regional Economics Studies Institute at Towson University and has more on how the tariffs will impact people in Maryland. "A tariff is like a sales tax, many of you go to the department store or grocery store and you pay a sales tax. A tariff is exactly like that, except in this case the importer will pay the tariff and pass on the increase to the consumer, depending upon many factors." Irani said. He said there are several items that come from those countries into our area. "Any gods that you think about imported from Canada and Mexico, so think about fresh fruit, vegetables, surprisingly we import a lot of waffles and wafers form Canada, soft lumber goods are imported from Canada, electronics are imported from Canada," Irani said. He thinks these new tariffs could lead to an increase in prices, thus impacting your wallet. "It may not be a one for one increase. It may be some percentage of overall tariffs. So instead of going up by a dollar, it may go up 75 cents, but consumers can expect to see prices go up for some everyday goods," Irani said.

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