4 Big Things That Tariffs May Hit Hard

Friday is looking like a good day to buy an electric vehicle and fill up on guacamole and salsa. As ABC News reports, with President Trump's threatened 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico set to go into effect on Saturday, Americans are going to feel the effect on several items that are near and dear to their hearts but originate north or south of the border. "The scary thing is the list of products is very, very long," says Jason Miller, a supply-chain management professor at Michigan State University. A look at what could be affected:

• Gas (maybe): Some 70% of the crude oil the US imports comes from Canada and Mexico, with the former supplying the lion's share. American refineries are geared toward Canadian crude, so there's largely no turning to the arms of another oil exporter. Experts say the tariffs could see consumers paying 40 cents to 70 cents more per gallon. There's an asterisk here, however, per NBC News: Trump himself opened up the possibility Thursday of excluding oil from tariffs if Canada and Mexico "treat us properly" and "if the oil is properly priced."

• Avocados: That avocado toast could get a little pricier as 90% of our avocados are grown in Mexico, as is a lot of the produce we consume. "Grocery stores operate on really tiny margins,'' Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute tells the AP. "They can't eat the tariffs ... You're talking about guacamole tariffs right before the Super Bowl." In 2023, the US imported some $38.5 billion in Mexican agricultural products; $3 billion of that was produce. Some $40 billion in agricultural imports came from Canada in 2023.
• Booze: "Don't forget all that beer we import from Mexico," Miller says. Some $26 billion in beer, tequila, and the like crossed the southern border in 2022.
• Cars: The auto industries of Canada, the US, and Mexico are deeply intertwined, with the US importing 47% of all vehicles in 2023 from our neighbors, to the tune of $120 billion. "You have American parts going to Mexico to be put into vehicles that are then shipped back to the United States," says Lincicome. "You throw 25% tariffs into all that, and it's just a grenade."

(More tariffs stories.)