Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warns "sweeping, untargeted tariffs" would reaccelerate inflation

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will warn in a Thursday speech that the type of tariffs planned by former President Donald Trump, if he were to retake the White House, would reignite inflation and harm the economy. 

The remarks from Yellen, which she will deliver when she speaks at 3 p.m. ET today at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, will take aim at the potential economic impact of Trump's proposals for 10% across-the-board levies on all products imported into the U.S. from overseas, as well as tariffs of 60% or more on imports from China. 

While Yellen didn't specifically name Trump, she described the dangers of "sweeping, untargeted tariffs" in excerpts of the speech released early Thursday by the Treasury Department. Economists are largely in agreement that Trump's broad-based tariffs would prove to be inflationary, given they would be paid by U.S. consumers — not foreign governments, as Trump has claimed — through higher prices on everything from food to cars.