Although the situation remains in flux and a temporary pause is in place, one thing is very clear: sustained, significant tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico would be very costly to the US economy. Tariffs of 25% on virtually all goods imported from Mexico and Canada with the exception of Canadian energy products (which are scheduled to be 10%) were recently announced. If levies of this magnitude are sustained for one year, The Perryman Group estimates that about 1.9 million US jobs could be lost.

Clearly, imposing substantial tariffs on major trading partners is costly for all nations involved. It is crucial that agreements on key issues are reached among the North American nations as soon as possible to reduce the effects of sustaining these destructive measures for an extended period.

For more details please refer to the full brief.