US Economist Urges Trump to Provide Relief to American Families Affected by Tariffs

Washington (ANTARA) - Prominent US economist Jeffrey Sachs on Monday (23/2) urged President Donald Trump to provide relief to American families bearing the cost of the sweeping tariffs imposed by his administration, after the Supreme Court ruled that the tariffs were unlawful.

He cited economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and other independent research institutions who have said “the burden of tariffs is largely borne by American importers, businesses, and consumers.”

“The government has a responsibility to design some form of relief. You took that money illegally, now you must return it,” Sachs said.

According to him, approximately 140 billion US dollars (1 US dollar = Rp16,818) in tariff revenue was collected at US ports last year. Meanwhile, the average American household paid around 1,000 US dollars or more as a result of the tariffs.

“For families living paycheque to paycheque, this is not an abstraction. It means rent stretched to breaking point. It means grocery prices rising whilst wages fail to keep pace,” Sachs said.

On Friday morning (20/2), the US Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that Trump’s tariff policy under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was illegal.

Several hours after the ruling was issued, Trump signed an executive order imposing a 10 per cent tariff on imports from all countries. On Saturday (21/2), Trump said he would raise the new global tariff to 15 per cent.

On Monday (23/2), Trump threatened countries around the world to comply with whatever tariff agreements they had already accepted, regardless of the Supreme Court ruling.

“Any country that wants to ‘play games’ with this ridiculous Supreme Court decision, especially countries that have been ‘cheating’ the US for years, even decades, will face far higher tariffs, and worse, than what they just agreed to,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.