Tariffs likely to drive up U.S. prices even with Trump trade deals, experts say [View all]

Source: CBS News

July 25, 2025 / 5:12 PM EDT


The new normal for U.S. tariffs on foreign goods starts at 15%. Even as President Trump seeks to forge new terms of trade with Japan, the European Union and other global economic partners, he is raising the floor for tariffs to their highest level in decades.

Speaking at an AI summit on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said "we'll have a straight, simple tariff of anywhere between 15% and 50%," conditioning the lower rate on countries opening their economies to the U.S. The White House has said sharply higher tariffs could take effect on dozens of countries as soon as Aug. 1 unless they ink new trade deals.

The Trump administration has a separate negotiating timeline with China, which faces an Aug. 12 deadline for an agreement. As these new rules of international commerce take shape, companies across a range of industries are emphasizing that higher tariffs translate into higher operational costs — and higher prices for consumers.

For example, Nestlé on Thursday said it was considering hiking prices for candy bars and other products as tariffs threaten to eat into the food company's profit margins. The same day, Italian fashion brand Moncler said it has already hiked prices for its apparel to offset additional tariff-related costs. And General Electric said this week that proposed U.S. tariffs, should they take effect, would cost the company around $500 million in 2025, noting that it would move to offset those taxes through "cost controls and pricing actions."

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tariff-baseline-15-percent-nestle-consumer-prices/