Taxpayer Watchdog Releases Report on First Year of Trump’s Trade Policy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kara Zupkus (224) 456-0257

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) published a new report reviewing the first year of the second Trump administration’s trade policies. Entitled “The Price of Protectionism: The Uncreative Destruction of Trump’s Trade Policies,” this report brings together extensive research on the economic and legal consequences of the federal government’s drastic increase in tariff rates, accomplished through unilateral executive action.

In conjunction with the report’s release, David B. McGarry, Research Director at TPA, offered the following comment:

“It has been a year and a day since President Trump began his trade war anew, announcing significant rate increases on Mexico and Canada. This period has been marred by the administration’s remarkable vacillations and its utter disbelief in sound analysis and the laws of basic economics. Sure enough, as many predicted, it has been American businesses and consumers—and not foreign exporters—that have borne the vast majority of the costs of Trump’s protectionist folly.

“President Trump has pursued his project—a project that aims to remake entirely America’s tariff schedule and global economic relationships—via executive action, without Congress. Even putting aside the economic questions, a nation founded on the notion of no taxation without representation cannot tolerate such presidential overreach. The Supreme Court will soon rule on these statutory and constitutional matters, and that ruling will likely strike a good share of President Trump’s actions.

“The year of protectionism reviewed by TPA’s report was not a good one for American businesses, domestic consumers, the Constitution, or the rule of law. Congress, the branch tasked with tariffing authorities as well as oversight duties, must intervene to prevent further abuses perpetrated by the White House.”

You can view the full report below or here.

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Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to educating the public through the research, analysis and dissemination of information on the government’s effects on the economy.