After decades of U.S. trade liberalization, President-elect Donald Trump could make sweeping changes that would limit the supply of some cheap goods from abroad.
Trump has suggested using double-digit tariffs to punish companies that leave the country and to rebalance trade accounts with strong exporters — especially China. That would mark a dramatic shift from the thousands of U.S. tariffs already on the books, which levy an average trade-weighted tax of 1.5 percent on goods coming into the country.
Some countries pay close to zero overall, while others pay an average of 7 percent or higher, depending on individual trade agreements and the goods they export. Last year, total tariffs collected came to $34 billion out of $2.2 trillion in imports, or about $100 for every person in the U.S., according to a CNBC analysis of data from the U.S. International Trade Commission.