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Consumers, noted Mr. Tintelnot in an interview, often buy a new washer and dryer at the same time. Their costs are similar. Rather than raising prices by 20% on clothes washers and unbalancing – no one likes unbalanced washing machines – companies have increased the prices of clothes washers and dryers by 11.5% each.
"As many consumers buy these products in a package, price increases have been partially masked by increasing the price of dryers," said Tintelnot. "It's very visible."
It is not surprising that tariffs have raised the price of foreign washers. Perhaps more unexpectedly, they also encouraged US manufacturers to raise their prices.
Businesses that largely sell imported washing machines, such as Samsung and LG, increased their prices to offset the tariff costs they had to pay. But domestic manufacturers, like Whirlpool, have raised prices, as well, largely because they could. There are not many new domestic producers of laundry equipment that could take Whirlpool off the price if the company decided to make more profits by raising prices at the same time that its competitors were forced to do so.
Researchers do not believe that Trump's other rates on metals used in washing machines have contributed to higher prices for US products.
"It is unlikely that the price of domestic manufacturers increase We are documenting the fact that input costs are higher – because of tariffs on other inputs such as steel – since we use other similar steel grade devices as a comparison group. " said Mr Tintelnot. "Instead, price increases are probably due to business operations by domestic companies."
Of course, consumer costs represent only half of the equation in trade policy. There is also the issue of job creation: how far policy seems to have shifted production and employment of the goods in question from foreign countries to the United States. The authors also explore this issue and point out how previous efforts by the United States to protect domestic manufacturers from foreign competition have ultimately led to the production of washing machines. across borders, almost overnight, in order to avoid US import duties.
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