CBS News is tracking the already sharply rising cost of products most impacted by tariffs imposed and new ones announced by President Trump on April 2, from the cost of common grocery items to the the purchase and operation of cars and trucks.
We will continue updating the weekly prices of groceries and the monthly costs of new vehicles, used vehicles, parts, repairs, insurance premiums and construction and manufacturing raw materials.
Economists and other experts say consumers can expect to see higher prices for imported items targeted by the latest round of tariffs in the coming weeks and months.
Groceries
Perhaps the most impacted day-to-day purchases for American families will be at the grocery store, where a large share of our most commonly purchased fruits and vegetables are imported from Mexico, Canada, China and other countries facing tariffs. Experts suggest the cost of those tariffs will be passed on to consumers in the grocery checkout lane.
We examined the prices for fruits, vegetables and juices that are primarily imported from other countries, according to USDA data. The average prices are drawn from weekly surveys that the Agriculture Department conducts at hundreds of stores across the country. We’ve tracked the weekly price data from 2020 through last week.
Cars and trucks
The cost of owning and operating a car or truck in the United States is a major focus ahead of the threatened White House tariffs on vehicles manufactured in other countries — a change experts predict will add thousands more to the cost of ownership, parts, repairs and insurance.
In the wake of the COVID pandemic, supply-chain interruptions and the inflation that followed, the price of buying new and used cars rose sharply. So did the cost of parts, repairs and insurance.
The charts show the price as an index — the percentage above a baseline. For new and used vehicles, we’re using an example of a small SUV to translate the percentages into dollars to explain the recent years’ change.
Used car prices spiked after the COVID pandemic because major supply chain disruptions and a global computer chip shortage severely slowed down new vehicle production. In some cases, late-model used vehicle prices soared to nearly the same as new models of the same or similar vehicles.
Some of the same phenomenon drove up the price of auto parts, and consequently, consumers’ bills at repair shops.
In addition to the rising cost of repairs, labor shortages, driving habits and increasing crash trends have driven up the cost of automobile insurance premiums, aggravating the total cost of owning and operating personal cars and trucks.
Construction and manufacturing supplies
Baked into the cost of everything from homebuilding to the manufacture of durable goods like appliances are the cost of core supplies like steel and aluminum, which are also targeted by the administration’s tariffs.
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