Zanny Minton-Beddoes

Many countries, rather than retaliating against the United States with their own tariffs, have actually cut a deal with the U.S.

And so if you went back to April.

Economists were looking at the threats the president made, and they thought that the overall average, what economists call the average effective tariff rate, which means the kind of average rate for the economy overall, was going to rise to something well above 20%.

In fact, if you look at how much revenue is being raised from tariffs, the actual rate right now is closer to just over 10%, which is still significant increase.

It's

And then not only is that tariff level lower, interestingly, many, many companies have not passed on the cost of that tariff to consumers.

They have swallowed the cost of the tariff in their profit margins.

And in the long run, that's not going to be possible.

Companies will have to pass on to their customers the cost of the tariff.

But in the short run, probably one of the reasons they haven't done so is partly I think they're scared of being the target of the president's ire, but also because there's so much uncertainty.

People aren't sure what is going to happen with tariffs going forward.

But all this means that right now we haven't, I don't think, seen the full impact of the tariffs.

It is going to put pressure on consumers.

in an ongoing way.

And actually, if you look at some sectors of the economy, it's already hitting very hard.

I mean, I'm sure you've been following what's happening to American farmers.

It's really tough if you're in the farming industry now.

And so you're seeing parts of the

You're right.

It is hard to keep track.