The U.S. enacted new tariffs during both of President Donald Trump&#x27;s terms in office, but the execution and impact of the 2018 and 2025 tariff policies were very different.<br>Research shows many more companies were impacted by the 2025 tariffs. The average tariff rate was also higher, tariffs were applied much more broadly, and productivity increased in ways that didn’t happen in 2018.<br>The Supreme Court invalidated many of the most recent tariffs in a 2026 ruling. That made the future of Trump’s tariff policy murkier, but there’s plenty to learn from what’s already happened.<br>Download the paper authored by Boston Fed economists Omar Barbiero, Viacheslav Sheremirov, Alvaro Silva, and Hillary Stein at the Boston Fed’s 69th Economic Conference, “The U.S. Economy in a Changing Global Landscape.”

The impacts of tariffs, then and now

Six Hundred Atlantic

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Six Hundred Atlantic

## Transcript

Decades before he became president, Donald Trump was a big fan of tariffs. He believed global trade was tilted against the U.S. and tariffs could even things out. For instance, in 1988, a company from Japan, a country Trump had long criticized for taking advantage of the U.S. and its military protection, outbid him at an auction for a piano used in the movie Casablanca. After the auction, Trump told a reporter, quote,

I believe very strongly in tariffs. America is being ripped off. We have to tariff. We have to protect this country, end quote. So it's not shocking that Trump enacted new tariffs in 2018 during his first term, and again in 2025 during his second term. And he's used the same rhetoric each time about tariffs being a tool to right wrongs and address unfair trading practices.

But even though the same president enacted them, the 2018 and 2025 tariff policies are very different. Boston Fed Research Director Egon Zakrachuk noted one key distinction in the 2025 tariffs. I think partly it's just the sheer size and the breadth of the tariffs.

The 2018 tariffs were generally targeted at specific goods like steel or aluminum and applied to a smaller number of countries, mostly China. Meanwhile, the 2025 tariffs covered everything imported from every country targeted. Here's Boston Fed senior economist Omar Barbiero. By spring 2025, the measures touched a much wider set of trading partners, basically the whole world.

And most of these tariffs were applied at the country level. So all good, no matter what you produce, all the goods from this country will be tariffed this much. The U.S. Supreme Court addressed that policy in a February 2026 ruling. The court found the president does not have the authority to impose tariffs of unlimited amount, duration and scope, including countrywide tariffs.

After the ruling, President Trump tried to enact a temporary global tariff, but that was disputed. Meanwhile, some importers have since worked to get refunds for the tariffs they've already paid, though the court never addressed exactly how refunds should be given. It's all made the future of Trump's tariff policy murkier. But there's plenty to learn from what already happened. Companies have already passed on costs from the invalidated 2025 tariffs to customers.

And some of the new tariffs remain in force. Overall, different results have emerged from the 2018 and 2025 tariff regimes. For instance, productivity for U.S. companies spiked in 2025. We also saw far more exposure in the 2025 tariffs. In other words, many more companies were potentially affected. And measures show the emotional reaction to the tariffs was much greater in 2025.

The size of the so-called shock was significantly, significantly larger. I'm Alison Ross and this is Six Hundred Atlantic, a podcast produced by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. A paper co-authored by Barbiero compares the impacts of the 2018 and...

The impacts of tariffs, then and now

Transcript

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The impacts of tariffs, then and now

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.