Sen. Chuck Schumer addresses President Trump's tariffs on Sunday. 

Sen. Chuck Schumer addresses President Trump's tariffs on Sunday.  Credit: Ed Quinn

President Donald Trump's tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico will gut American consumers' purchasing power and shatter one of his key campaign promises — curbing inflation, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday, vowing to build bipartisan opposition in Congress.

Trump on Saturday signed an executive order implementing the tariffs, which will include a 25% tax on goods from Canada and Mexico and 10% on those from China. The tariffs go into effect Tuesday.

At his Manhattan office, Schumer tied the tariffs to next Sunday's Super Bowl by holding up an avocado, a lime and a can of Corona Extra beer as examples of consumer items that could soar in price to make up for Mexico's increased expenditure. 

"That’s going to mean higher prices for New Yorkers, higher prices for Americans," Schumer said. "Everything you were promised during the election is out the window if these tariffs go through."

Trump said he imposed the import tax as a way to stop the flow of immigrants crossing into the United States illegally and put an end to a flood of fentanyl and other deadly drugs entering the country. The president declared a national emergency under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

Trump, in a post on his self-owned social media network, Truth Social, was noncommittal about potential damage from the tariffs to American consumers.

"Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe (and maybe not)," Trump wrote. "It will all be worth the price that must be paid."

Schumer cited a report from the nonpartisan Budget Lab at Yale University estimating the tariffs could cost the average American household as much as $1,200 in annual purchasing power based on 2024 dollars, as well as another report from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation that estimated that figure could be $830.

"In cities like New York, and in areas like Long Island, the price could be even higher than the $1,200 a year," Schumer said.

The country is now in a trade war with Mexico and Canada, the senator added. Both countries have vowed to respond with their own tariffs on U.S. exports. Schumer said the tariffs on Canadian goods could lead to price increases in dairy products, cars and home construction, since a lot of wood in the United States comes from Canada.

The United States is the largest importer of goods in the world, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative's website. China, Mexico and Canada were the top three importers of U.S. goods in 2022 respectively, totaling more than $1.4 trillion combined, the website says.

Schumer pledged to "explore every way that we could legislatively prevent these tariffs from happening."

"The good news is there are a good number of Republicans who don’t like them either, so I’m hopeful we can get bipartisan legislation," Schumer said. "If you want to go after foreign countries, don’t do it at the expense of the American consumer, who’s going to pay more."

Among Republicans in Congress objecting to Trump's tariff was Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

"Tariffs are simply taxes," Paul wrote in a Saturday post on X. "Conservatives once united against new taxes. Taxing trade will mean less trade and higher prices."

Gov. Kathy Hochul, in an interview on MSNBC’s "The Weekend" on Sunday, also expressed concern about how the tariffs could affect New Yorkers, particularly those levied against Canada, which shares the state's northern border.

"We have a lot of trade between us, and it's critically important for our farmers, and our manufacturers, and all the areas we produce materials that Canada needs that we get that across the border with ease," Hochul said on MSNBC. "New York State is the economic engine of the country. When you do something that hurts New York, because we are in such close proximity to Canada, it's going to have a ripple effect across the country, and I'm concerned about that."

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