Marc Pucciarelli
Scotiabank Economics: Rules of Thumb for Estimating the Impact of U.S. Tariffs on Canada
12/4/2024
From Scotiabank
There are many uncertainties about the economic outlook as President Trump is set to take the helm of the United States. Those range from uncertainty about the policy actions he will take to uncertainty about the impact of those very policies. A case in point is the recent statement that he would implement tariffs hikes of 25% on all imports from Canada and Mexico, and 10% on imports from China. While we do not believe these tariffs will be implemented (see here), it is very likely that over the next several months, economic forecasts will need to present some alternative paths for the economy around a central scenario. Those alternative scenarios are likely to represent choices made by forecasters as to which policy assumption to include in their forecasts. Only when policy measures will actually be announced and implemented will uncertainty around the policy environment diminish. Given its critical nature to Canada and other trading partners, and to the U.S. itself of course, we thought it would be helpful to provide some rough rules of thumb for estimating the impact of trade policy changes on Canada and the U.S. These rules of thumb, derived from our macroeconometric model of the U.S. and Canadian economies, while by no means meant to be exact, are designed to help provide a quick and dirty assessment of the impact of changes in tariffs on the economy, inflation, and interest rates in both countries.
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