Cal State Fullerton College of Business and Economics economists Anil Puri, director of the Woods Center for Economic Analysis and Forecasting, and Mira Farka, professor of economics and co-director of the Woods Center, provided the local and national outlook at the 2025 Economic and International Trade Forecast on April 30. The event brought together policymakers, business leaders, academics and students seeking to understand how the uncertainty impacts them.
Tariff Turmoil – And What It Means for the Future
On April 2, a day President Trump dubbed “Liberation Day,” the president announced massive tariffs on goods from all foreign countries. The third and sixth largest point losses in the Dow Jones Industrial Average occurred in the first week of April. While the president’s April 9 reversal — delaying most tariffs for three months to allow for negotiations — cheered the markets, concerns about the broader economic outlook persist. Tariffs are still at their highest since 1930.
Puri and Farka note that these tariffs differ markedly from what occurred in the first Trump administration.
“Tariffs also featured prominently in Trump’s first term, but their scope was far narrower, focused mainly on China and on steel and aluminum products, many of which were ultimately granted exemptions,” they reported. “As Mark Twain famously quipped, ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.’ Yes, history may rhyme — but this time, the Trump administration isn’t merely humming an old tune. It’s marching to a far more militant battle hymn, judging by the speed, scope and depth of the tariffs it has enacted.”
As in Trump’s first term, objectives include addressing unfair trade practices, correcting trade imbalances, shoring up national supply chains, reducing strategic vulnerabilities, rebuilding U.S. manufacturing and gaining negotiating leverage. But Puri and Farka see two new factors at play this time around.
Read more about what Puri and Farka anticipate in this CSUF Business News article.