If you read the news this past week, chances are you were bombarded with articles about the new tariffs proposed by the Trump administration. If you miraculously escaped the countless intimidating headlines, let me fill you in: President Donald Trump announced a sweeping new tariff regime that slaps a 10% tax on nearly all imports, with additional reciprocal tariffs on 57 countries. Then, after a week of intense market turmoil, Trump declared he would back down on his reciprocal tariffs for 90 days, with the exception of tariffs on China.
While the intended purpose of these tariffs is economic and political—boosting domestic production and punishing foreign competitors—there may be an unintended environmental consequence worth noting. They may not have been designed with sustainability in mind, but the tariffs could inadvertently reduce overconsumption and lower carbon emissions.
Bear with me. In essence, tariffs make foreign goods more expensive. American companies may absorb these costs, pass them onto consumers, or push them back to suppliers. In any case, the outcome is often higher prices for American consumers. Generally, as goods get more expensive, demand for them decreases.
This phenomenon resonates with so-called degrowth thinking, which challenges the mainstream assumption that endless economic expansion is compatible with sustainability. Anthropologist and degrowther Jason Hickel argues for a shift toward post-growth economies, where societies are based on sufficiency and autonomy, thereby downscaling economies’ material throughput. Degrowth stresses not only consuming less, but also producing and sourcing goods locally, reducing waste, and fostering community autonomy. In this context, tariffs, by limiting the geographic scale of activities, could encourage localized production and reduce reliance on environmentally costly global supply chains.
Fast fashion perfectly illustrates these implications. Companies like Chinese manufacturers Shein and Temu thrive off of American overconsumption. For decades, the global economy, underpinned by free trade agreements, offshore manufacturing, and cheap labor, has encouraged American consumers to place unnecessarily large clothing orders that inevitably end up in the trash. Previously, these retailers utilized the de minimis exemption, which allows duty-free entry for goods valued under $800, to cheaply ship low cost items directly to consumers. This exemption enabled fast fashion giants to flood consumers with massive quantities of cheap, disposable clothing and, in the process, produce 10% of global pollution.
As part of his tariffs, Trump is set to end the de minimis exemption on products from China at midnight on May 1, 2025. This change could lead to higher prices and longer shipping times for fast fashion brands. The previous appeal of Shein—the low prices—may begin to wane. This would thus lessen the carbon footprint associated with transporting and producing these goods, reducing emissions from fast fashion’s massively environmentally harmful model.
Despite these potential benefits, it’s also important to acknowledge that tariffs are not universally beneficial to the environment. The renewable energy sector, for instance, is already taking a significant hit. The production of solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles is heavily reliant on global supply chains and specialized materials that we cannot produce domestically. Slapping tariffs on these goods would raise the cost of clean energy technologies, slowing their adoption and undermining future decarbonization efforts.
By no means are these tariffs the magic solution to saving the environment. Tariffs, of course, are just one aspect of the broader global trade policy, and their environmental and behavioral impacts can differ depending on various factors I haven’t explored.
But in light of all the overwhelming headlines, market volatility, and general chaos, we might see some unexpected environmental benefits from these new measures. Perhaps these tariffs will nudge us to be more thoughtful about the consumerism which has so jeopardized the environment in recent decades. Stepping away from globalized overconsumption could be exactly what we need.
Lyah Muktavaram is a member of the Class of 2026 and can be reached at lmuktavaram@wesleyan.edu.
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