Trump’s tariffs could cost North Carolina households $1,100 each year

North Carolinians are paying the price for President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have driven up the cost of everyday essentials like groceries and clothing.

Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration in July will cost North Carolina families $1,100 annually, and businesses could experience layoffs or profit losses, according to an Aug. 4 press release from state Attorney General Jeff Jackson. In the press release, Jackson announced he’d filed a lawsuit along with the attorneys general or governors of 24 other states challenging the legality of the tariffs.

“These tariffs are hurting families, farmers, and business owners,” Jackson said. “They’re illegal, and they’re making things harder for North Carolinians who are working around the clock to keep the lights on, pay rent, and afford gas.”

On July 24, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative placed 10% to 12.5% tariffs on goods imported from 59 countries and the European Union, which account for almost all U.S. imports.

Trump has used a variety of statutes as justification for imposing levies on American trading partners, initially declaring a state of emergency in 2025 that the Supreme Court later ruled did not give him the authority to apply tariffs.

Following the ruling, the U.S. Court of International Trade ordered the federal government to issue tariff refunds to hundreds of thousands of importers.

The same day the Supreme Court overturned the emergency tariffs, Trump imposed a new 10% global tariff, claiming authority under the Trade Act of 1974. Two dozen states, including North Carolina, filed a lawsuit on March 5 over that round of tariffs, arguing Trump was once again acting beyond his authority. The U.S. Court of International Trade ruled in May that those tariffs were also unlawful.

The July tariffs took effect just as the 10% global tariffs were set to expire. The plaintiffs in the latest suits against them say that the trade representative is using allegations of “forced labor as a pretext to continue its illegal tariff scheme” and that the tariffs cause direct financial harm to the states and their residents as it increases the price of goods.

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 90% of the tariffs’ economic burden fell on American businesses and consumers in 2025. Between March 2025 and October 2025, the price of imported goods grew by 6.6% as a result of tariff measures, Harvard Business School researchers found, with the largest price increases in carpets and other floor coverings (54%), clothing and clothing accessories (24%), coffee, tea, and cocoa (16%), and fish and seafood (16%).

Businesses then passed the higher costs of items onto customers. North Carolinians paid nearly $3.5 billion in emergency tariffs alone, according to reporting from Axios. Axios Raleigh reported in February that North Carolina soybean and corn farmers have been especially hard hit by tariffs because they’re paying more for equipment and other farming items than they’re making in sales.