President Donald Trump has made tariffs the key economic buzzword of his second term in the White House, raising red flags for many economists and prompting a lot of everyday people to ask: What are tariffs?

4.8%. That’s how much the U.S.’ weighted average tariff rate would be if Trump implemented the country-level strategy, Deutsche Bank economists led by Justin Weidner estimated in a Monday note. That’s a 3.3 percentage-point increase from the 1.5% effective rate U.S. imports had in 2022, according to the World Bank.

"I just want to make sure people can put food at their table," the CEO of a food pantry told Newsweek about Trump's impact on their work.

It’s true that brands like Aritzia, Lululemon, Shein, and SSSense hail from countries that are being targeted by the Trump tariffs that he announced earlier this month. But does that mean we’ll be paying 25% more for leggings? Do we need to panic-buy Aligns and Super Puffs? Is this the end of the shopping haul as we know it?

In announcing his desire to impose reciprocal tariffs, Trump has not spared anyone — neither enemies nor allies — and has, as such, signalled the end of all existing trading rules