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“Generally there are two main goals of imposing tariffs,” Chicago-Kent College of Law Professor says. “The first is to collect fiscal revenues of the government. The second is to protect a certain industry by creating trade barriers against foreign competition by making foreign products more expensive than rival domestic products.”

United State President Donald J. Trump pointed to these reasons, as well as being able to use tariffs to curb the flow of illegal drugs into the country, when he levied tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China on February 1, 2025. The tariffs on Canada and Mexico, slated to go into effect on February 4, were paused for 30 days on February 3 as negotiations began to take place, but the 10 percent tariffs against China went into effect.

Cho says that tariffs are essentially a tax that a country imposes on importers of foreign products. Throughout history, feelings about tariffs have been mixed.

“Often domestic industries lobby government to erect or maintain tariff barriers to secure protection from foreign competition,” Cho says, adding: “Since the end of the second World War, countries have continuously reduced the tariff levels through global and regional trade negotiations. These trade negotiations have made world trade freer and contributed to economic prosperity globally.”

The results of this prosperity can be felt by everyday Americans, but Cho says a return to levying tariffs could have the opposite impact.

“Initially importers, distributors, or retailers may absorb the tariff burden to some extent because they do not want to raise the sale prices of their goods and remain competitive in the market,” he says. “But as the cost rises due to the tariff payment, at a certain point, businesses have no option but to shift the burdens to consumers by increasing the sale prices.”

Cho says that tariffs are also regressive taxes in that they tend to burden lower-income families disproportionately than higher-income groups, and history shows that countries often retaliate against foreign tariffs by levying tariffs of their own, resulting in a “tariff war.”

When considered alongside today’s complicated supply chains, Cho says that tariffs could impact more products than consumers realize.

“Around half of total products that the United States imports are certain parts and components that will be used to manufacture other products in the United States,” he says. “Therefore, a tariff increase means an increase of production cost throughout the supply chain, and this chain effect will eventually result in higher consumer prices on imported products.”