Economists: Tariffs Not Boosting GDP
Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have a small, negative impact on gross domestic product growth, according to economists, the Congressional Budget Office, the International Monetary Fund and the top White House economic adviser. That contradicts President Donald Trump’s repeated claim that the tariffs have boosted the GDP.
As the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service put it in February, the “consensus among most economists is that the tariffs are likely to have a negative effect on the U.S. economy overall.”
As the trade war between China and the U.S. intensified, Trump insisted on May 13 that tariffs imposed so far by the U.S. have increased revenues to the Treasury and improved the economy.
The president said in that the 3.2 percent GDP growth for the first quarter “was greatly helped by Tariffs from China.” Trump repeated before his meeting with Hungary’s prime minister later in the day. After boasting about the “tremendous amounts of money” coming to the U.S. via tariffs imposed last year on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods, as well as what will be coming from the latest round of tariffs imposed last week, he turned to the GDP.
