US tariff tracker: How much does it cost to buy groceries?

Name: Bipartisan effort to rein in US tariffs
Uploaded: 2025-04-04T15:12:32-07:00
Description: There's now a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill to rein in Trump's tariffs. A bill has been introduced that would require President Trump to explain the reasoning and impacts of any new tariffs to Congress within 48 hours of going into effect.

Bipartisan effort to rein in US tariffs

There's now a bipartisan effort on Capitol Hill to rein in Trump's tariffs. A bill has been introduced that would require President Trump to explain the reasoning and impacts of any new tariffs to Congress within 48 hours of going into effect.

SEATTLE - President Trump’s sweeping tariffs targeted most of the U.S.A.’s trading partners, immediately tanking global markets amid fears of an all-out trade war. Long-term, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the tariffs are likely to increase inflation and slow economic growth. The impact on consumers is starting to be felt, and FOX 13 is tracking it all, using USDA and Federal Reserve data to show you how much more – or less – everyday items are costing you.

Price check on produce:

The place you’re most likely to see tariff’s take hold first is at the grocery store. That’s because many of the fruits and vegetables on your shopping list are imported from countries targeted by Trump like Mexico and Canada. The chart below shows the average cost per item, as calculated by the US Department of Agriculture’s weekly survey of retail grocery prices across the country.

Driving automotive prices up:

One of President Trump’s goals with his tariff policy is to bring large-scale manufacturing back to the U.S. – and that especially includes the automotive industry. The White House slapped a 25% tariff on imported vehicles and auto parts; as the average cost of new vehicles goes up, demand for used cars and trucks is also expected to rise. And because the tariff includes imported parts, taking your car in for routine service or minor repairs may become a major drain on your bank account. We’ve charted each category using data from the Federal Reserve and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, which indexes today’s prices against the average of cost each item in 1982-1984. The data is released monthly, so it may be some time before we see the extent of any sticker shock.

Building up extra costs?:

Some of the tariff’s target imports that help set the price of entire supply chains, such as the 25% tariff on steel and aluminum, regardless of the country it was shipped from. We’re watching how these new expenses will play out in new construction projects, with commercial and residential builders around Puget Sound worried that buyers will be priced out of an already expensive market. The Federal Reserve data, released monthly, compares today’s prices as a percentage difference against what it would have cost for the same amount of material in 1982. Like the automotive numbers, the information is about one month behind, so we won’t be able to measure the impact of Trump’s April tariff announcement until May.

The Source: Information in this story comes from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED and the USDA National Retail Report.