KENTUCKY, USA — Universal tariffs could be coming America's way if President-elect Donald Trump gets his way when he takes office.
Trump has a sweeping proposal to impose tariffs of up to 20% for everything the U.S. imports, and to tax Chinese goods as much as 60%.
It's a primary focus of Trump's economic agenda to increase manufacturing in the country and support domestic job growth.
There is concern the customers will bear the brunt of this, and many economists like University of Kentucky economics professor Ken Troske have sounded the alarm.
"Yeah, you'll see growth in employment in some industries, but it'll be far offset by the decline in employment in these other industries that scale back -- because now I have less money to spend on services," Troske told WHAS11 on Monday. "We've had paper after paper after paper after paper that have shown, 'Hey, this is the impact of these tariffs.' I don't know how much evidence you need."
Troske fears the move would cause a return to a higher inflation rate.
"People will become poorer. They'll spend less. And that in turn will lower the demand for all sorts of products," he said.
Ordering inventory up to a year in advance could soon become a little more complicated for Matt Muller, owner of Ken Combs Running Store over in St. Matthews in Louisville. It's been a community staple for more than 40 years.
"People have figured it out, and now we're back to this unknown," Muller told WHAS11.
Muller said he anticipates "at some point our prices will increase because it's going to pass to us from our vendors as they start to see their tariffs increase."
"We're a margin-based business. [If] our prices go up, well, guess what -- it's going to pass on to the customer. It's going to trickle down to them eventually," he said.
The store doesn't buy its running shoes and other products directly from the manufacturer overseas, but if Donald Trump's plan becomes reality, customers could eventually feel the pinch.
"Depending on the type of shoe it is, $5 increase per pair, maybe $10 increase per pair," Muller projected.
Trump believes his policy would create more manufacturing jobs within the U.S.
Louisville's elected officials acknowledge they're thinking about this topic.
"Tariffs could really impact some local companies here. In the spirits industry -- you mentioned GE -- so that's certainly a concern that we're going to be monitoring," Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said.
"When the tariffs were implemented last time, they had a pretty significant impact on some of our major employers including UPS and Brown-Forman, and that's certainly top of mind in terms of how it impacts their bottom lines and therefore their ability to employ folks here locally," said Metro Council President Markus Winkler.
There's been debate on whether Trump will need the help of Congress to pass his sweeping tariff proposal.
Republicans have secured control of the U.S. Senate. Control of the U.S. House of Representatives is still up in the air as of early Monday evening.
►Contact senior reporter Isaiah Kim-Martinez at IKimMartin@whas11.com or on Facebook or X.
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, or visit our Facebook page or X feed.