Tariffs could cost American homes over $5k a year. How will new Trump tariffs affect WA?
On Wednesday, April 2, President Donald Trump announced a wide range of new tariffs on imports to the U.S. Included in the announcement is a 10% baseline tariff on all imports to the U.S., taking effect on Saturday, April 5, along with higher tariffs on countries with which the U.S. has a trade deficit that go into effect on April 9.
Trump’s accompanying Executive Order outlines the additional tariffs impacting nearly all U.S. trade partners. The changes are expected to fully take effect within a week, according to reporting by AP News.
The announcement follows an earlier set of tariffs imposed by Trump in March targeting Mexico, Canada and China.
A recent analysis from the Centers for American Progress estimates that the tariffs could cost the average American household in the neighborhood of $5,200 a year.
According to information shared in Wednesday’s announcement, imports from the European Union will be hit with a 20% tariff, while Japan will see a 24% increase. There will also be 25% for imports from South Korea, 34% for imports from China and 46% for imports from Vietnam.
Trade plays a significant role in Washington’s economy. The Evergreen State exported well over $57 billion worth of goods in 2024, the ninth-most of any state, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. The state imported over $62 billion, according to the International Trade Administration.
While the full effects of the new policy won’t be known until potential retaliatory tariffs are announced, here are the goods and industries that might be impacted.
WA top trade partners in Asia
Washington trades more with Asia than any other region in the world, according to data from the International Trade Administration. In 2024, the state imported over $34 billion worth of goods from Asia, and exported nearly $32 billion, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
China was Washington’s second-biggest trade partner in the world in 2024, with over $23 billion in total imports and exports, behind only Canada.
Japan was the state’s second-biggest trade partner in Asia and third overall at nearly $12 billion in 2024, followed by South Korea at just under $10.5 billion. Taiwan was next among Asian countries at almost $3.7 billion and Vietnam rounded out the top five at $3.5 billion.
Top WA imports from Asia
To access Washington’s import and export data, we used the Census Bureau’s U.S. Trade Online database. The resource is free to use, although you need an account to view the data. Once you’ve logged in, you can see each state’s trade data broken down by year, item and country of origin or destination.
Washington imported over $10.7 billion worth of cars and car parts from Asia in 2024, according to the database, the most of any category of item. The vast majority of that – $4 billion and $6 billion, respectively – came from Japan and South Korea. However, cars are covered by a separate 25% tariff that the Trump administration announced in late March.
The state’s next biggest category of imports to Washington from Asia was electronics, which accounted for $3.6 billion worth of imports to the state. Over one-third of that came from China, while Japan contributed another $610 million worth of electronics.
Nuclear reactors and boilers were the next-most imported category of items from Asia at $3.4 billion, nearly $1.2 billion of which came from Japan and $1.1 billion from China.
Toys, sports equipment and games, the vast majority of which originated from China, were the fourth-largest import at $2.9 billion, followed by furniture at $1.5 billion, the majority of which also came from China.
After these larger import categories, these were Washington’s next-biggest imports from Asia in 2024:
Knit apparel, $1.3 billion
Plastics, $1.2 billion
Footwear, $1.1 billion
Non-knit apparel, $879 million
Articles of iron and steel, $736 million
Medical instruments, $729 million
Textile art and needlecraft, $571 million
Iron and steel, $371 million
Aluminum, $360 million
Fish and crustaceans, $360 million
Of those categories, Vietnam was the leading exporter of both knit and non-knit apparel to Washington, while South Korea supplied most of the iron and steel Washington imported from Asia. China was the leading exporter in every other category.
Top WA exports to Asia
While the tariffs were imposed in response to trade deficits between the U.S. and its trade partners, there’s still a chance that impacted countries will respond with retaliatory tariffs, notably China.
To get a sense of which Washington industries would be most affected by retaliatory tariffs imposed by Asian countries, here are the state’s top exports to the region.
Washington’s top category of exports to Asia in 2024 was planes and aircraft parts at $9.9 billion. Oil seeds were next at $6.3 billion, followed by cereals at $5.4 billion. Beyond that, no other category surpasses $1 billion in exports from Washington to Asia. Mineral fuel comes closest at $967 million, followed by medical equipment at $937 million.
Here are the rest of Washington’s top exports to Asia from 2024:
Prepared or pre-processed fruits, vegetables and nuts, $923 million
Electronics, $891 million
Nuclear reactors and boilers, $568 million
Fruits and nuts, $540 million
Iron and steel, $448 million
This story was originally published April 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Tariffs could cost American homes over $5k a year. How will new Trump tariffs affect WA?."