as we mentioned at the top of the show the stock market continued to take a beating today with all the major indexes taking a nose dive it's in direct response to President Trump's new 10% tariff on all foreign imports and a higher rate on 60 countries that are significant trade partners with the US including China India the UK and the European Union the new policy is rattling Wall Street industry and consumers who are watching as foreign nations retaliate with their own new taxes on US goods a move economists say will undoubtedly raise prices for folks here at home at least in the short term senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan reports that's going to hurt everybody and not just here but the whole country that's what I think folks shopping for food in Payic feel a little shell shocked after Donald Trump launched a barrage of tariffs sparking a global trade war that analysts figure could cost the average American family up to $4,000 a year really trying to put a real screw excuse the language uh screw us out of our um income and our livelihood any additional increase particularly in the supermarket you know fresh fruit and vegetables uh meat things like that eggs i mean that would be concerning you know cuz your budget can only stretch so far as US companies pay these extra taxes on imported goods they'll pass the pain on to consumers for a long list of items nike sneakers from Vietnam video game consoles from Japan frozen shrimp from India iPhones from China but also basic stuff says Yale Budget Labs Martha Gimble we're estimating that the price of clothes is going to go up by about 17% um it's also going to impact food the price of rice is going to go up by double digits new Jersey last year imported $164 billion worth of goods ranking it sixth out of the 50 states it's a deeply diverse population supporting local shops like Montlair's Paper Plain Coffee the owner's family imports coffee beans from their home farm in Colombia this is inevitably going to have to bring up the prices because you know as small business owners or like you know a restaurant tour um a cafe owner we operate on margins on percentiles you know labor has to be a certain percentage in order for you to be successful at the end of the day to just be able to pay rent in Jersey City Riverview Wine and Spirits cultivated a loyal clientele by offering assorted imports the owner will eat some of the price increases but it's definitely going to hurt us as a as a small business that's focusing mostly on affordable everyday wine for my community and diversity and cultural experience and I have seven employees and uh am I going to be able to keep them on payroll this is a very very scary um and very uncertain situation that we're in because we are part of a global manufacturing network marsha Freeze heads Case Medical Manufacturing in Bloomfield she imports machinery and raw materials from China Mexico Canada Italy and Denmark freeze has now downshifted plans to expand in such a volatile marketplace we're not going to be hiring another production worker we're not going to be hiring you know another engineer we're we're going to basically have to cut back on our growth businesses fear tariffs and trade wars could disrupt global operations it certainly tanked the US stock market by more than 2,000 points over the past couple days folks on fixed incomes watched their 401ks plummet i think it's going to be catastrophic the stock market took a really bad hit today going down like never before but Trump has argued tariffs will raise 600 billion dollars a year in revenue and force companies to reinvest in American manufacturing in the long run the markets are going to boom the stock is going to boom the country is going to boom and the rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal and even though experts tell him this is not the way to go even though the stock market is showing him this is not the way to go that the creating this instability is not healthy for our economy he doesn't care democrat Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman fears a trade war will create instability and drive up inflation even as the Trump administration cuts jobs and slashes billions in federal aid business leader Michelle Sukurka would have preferred a more targeted approach for example tariff exemptions for critical imported items so let's have recognition of the things that we cannot get here in America that we must get from abroad that are part of the supply chain and let's take a scalpel and go back in there and and pull tariffs off of that because that will help this impact as well in the longer term Brenda what we need is a comprehensive approach she supports the administration's pro business tax cutting policies but even the president's supporters feel a bit nervous over universal tariffs i'm worried about it like a lot of people would be i just want to see you know just give it a chance maybe for you know a couple months he says maybe Trump will strike a bargain so far several other nations have counterattacked with their own retaliatory tariffs i'm Brenda Flanigan NJ Spotlight News [Music]