President Donald Trump told Congress on Tuesday evening that tariffs will be added to agricultural products starting on April 2.

“It may be a little bit of an adjustment period. We had that before when I made the deal with China, $50 billion of purchases. And I said, ‘Just bear with me,’ and they did. They did probably have to bear with me again. And this will be even better,” the president said.

Trump announced hours later he’s granting a one-month tariff exemption for United States automakers. However, the tariffs will move ahead for some of our biggest trading partners, including Canada.

Professor Greg Nowell, an economist at UAlbany, said the first thing we’re likely to feel is a price spike in lumber.

Construction companies here in the Capital Region that use Canadian wood now must pay 25% more for that same wood due to Trump’s tariffs. That will increase the cost of homes, buildings and new construction projects.

Trump also has a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico.

Because we get a lot of our fruits and vegetables from Mexico, you may see higher prices at the grocery store on produce.

With a 10% tariff on energy, like gas and oil from Canada, we could see gas prices go up 40 cents a gallon as early as this month!

“The tremendous disparity in the distribution of wealth in the United States, I think that will get worse because, as I said, I think there will be pressure on employment, it will be harder for people to get jobs, and so I think that the poor are going to get poorer.”

Tariffs also spark trade wars, said Nowell.

Now Canada is putting its own tariffs on items coming from the United States, encouraging Canadians to stop buying certain items from U.S. companies.

President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had a 50-minute phone call on this on Wednesday.

Canada is currently focusing their tariffs on things like Kentucky bourbon and other items from southern states that more strongly support President Trump.