By Caleb Taylor
How are Arkansans being affected by the trade war between the United States and China?
UCA Assistant Professor of Economics and ACRE Scholar Dr. Jeremy Horpedahl was a guest of Steve Barnes, host of Arkansas Week on AETN recently to discuss this and more. Horpedahl was joined on the panel by Harrison Pittman, director of the National Agricultural Law Center, a unit of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Tariffs are taxes on imports or exports exchanged between countries. Some of the discussion focused on tariffs’ effects on Arkansas’s farms and businesses, but Horpedahl also pointed out how Arkansas consumers are being harmed.
Horpedahl said:
When it comes to consumers, there have been several estimates of how big the effect on consumers is. A rough estimate is this is costing $1,000 per household which completely offsets any of the benefits of the tax cuts the Trump administration passed at the end of 2017. Any benefits households might’ve seen by that by higher prices they’re paying and on employment as well.”
The episode aired on August 9 and 11 on AETN.
You can watch the full episode online here.