Explainers Apr 10, 2025

Unlocked: How do tariffs work and what are the impacts?

Clark Merrefield

Focus Areas

stacks of shipping containers on a boat docked in a port

President Trump ran on the idea of imposing wide-ranging trade tariffs, and immediately upon taking office announced his first tariff plan.

Covering tariffs is complicated – what tariffs have been enacted and for how long, which are being contested and how, what are the likely short and long term effects of the tariffs?

On January 28, 2025, The Journalist’s Resource and Econofact hosted a webinar featuring two trade economists and an NPR producer whose reporting teams have covered tariffs.

Clark Merrefield, senior editor for economics and legal systems at The Journalist’s Resource co-moderated the panel discussion with Michael Klein, the William L. Clayton Professor of International Economic Affairs at Tufts and founder and executive editor of Econofact.

The panelists were:

Douglas Irwin, the John French Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College and author of “Clashing over Commerce: A History of U.S. Trade Policy.”
Lydia Cox, assistant professor of economics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who has researched the employment and price effects of tariffs.
Alex Goldmark, executive producer of NPR’s Planet Money and The Indicator.

Read the tips at The Journalist's Resource

Four Tips to Understand Tariffs from The Journalist’s Resource

Know the history of U.S. tariffs.
Know who pays for tariffs in the short and long run.
Know the price and employment effects of tariffs.
Know that there are stories to be told about how businesses ‘contort themselves’ to get around tariffs.

Read the tips at The Journalist's Resource