Tariffs will lift US gas prices within days
CNN
The tariff on products imported from Canada will cost Americans 15 cents a gallon or more at the gas pump relatively soon. That’s not as much of a price hike as we could have seen.
The tariff on products imported from Canada will cost Americans 15 cents a gallon or more at the gas pump relatively soon. That’s not as much of a price hike as we could have seen. Tariffs on US imports from Canada and Mexico were announced Saturday by the Trump administration and are set to take effect on goods arriving here Tuesday, as President Donald Trump followed through on a campaign promise by taking action against America’s two biggest trading partners. The tariffs, a tax on goods crossing the border, will affect the price Americans will pay for all manner of imports from the countries, including cars, lumber and agricultural products. But gasoline and other energy products could be among the first to see the expected price increases. One factor limiting the price increase is the tariffs on energy products is only 10%, not the 25% tariff announced on other products from Canada. A Trump administration official told reporters on Saturday that a lower tariff on energy was done to spare Americans from from having to pay even more for gasoline and heating oil, even though President Donald Trump has long insisted, incorrectly, that it is the foreign nation, not Americans, who pay the cost of any tariffs that are imposed. “We took this step simply because… a 10% rate on energy will minimize any disruptive effects we might have on gasoline and home heating oil prices,” said the administration official, who spoke on condition he not be identified. Wholesale gasoline prices were up 8 cents a gallon on trading markets early Monday, said analyst Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates. And the price at the pump could go up even more as the cost of the tariffs are added on top of the increase in market prices. The average price of a gallon of gas stood at about $3.10 a gallon as of Monday, according to AAA, unchanged from Sunday’s price reading. Diesel prices were trading up 10 cents a gallon. Higher prices for diesel could lead to a fuel surcharge by trucking companies, which could bleed through to the price of goods, since virtually every item in Americans’ homes were on a truck at some point. And it could also raise the price of heating oil, which is the same basic product as diesel fuel.
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