Senior Food and Drug Administration leaders are planning for cutbacks to the number of routine food and drug inspections conducted by the agency, multiple officials say, due to steep layoffs this week in support staff. 

Around 170 workers were cut from the FDA’s Office of Inspections and Investigations, according to two federal health officials who were not authorized to speak publicly. 

The Department of Health and Human Services has said layoffs ordered by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with some 10,000 workers let go from the department, would not directly cut FDA’s inspections staff. But in meetings among federal health officials, the agency’s remaining leaders have grappled with how to deal with major delays and disruptions caused by the loss of administrative and management staff who had supported the agency’s inspectors, according to two FDA officials.

“These administrative functions are being streamlined as part of HHS’ transformation initiative to make the agency more efficient and responsive. FDA inspectors were not impacted and this critical work will continue,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement.

The inspections and investigations office will now need to work with FDA’s drug, device and food centers to reprioritize their workload for the rest of the year, one official said. That will mean trimming routine “surveillance inspections” for more urgent tasks, the official said, like inspections of firms where the agency has been alerted to a safety risk or follow-up visits to ensure that drugmakers or food producers have fixed previous violations.

One of the biggest immediate impacts on the agency’s inspectors stems from the elimination of the office’s travel operations division, one official said. The team’s work ranged from booking flights to coordinating with the State Department to secure translators needed for inspections of drugmakers and food producers abroad.

“As of yesterday, all front-line investigators will now be spending significant time processing their own travel and related administrative requirements, rather than spending that time in firms ensuring the American consumer is protected,” one FDA official told CBS News.

A pilot program of unannounced foreign inspections has also been paused due to the cuts, an official said, because of the loss of staff that had been tasked with quickly securing translators around the world.

The FDA has long struggled to meet its own inspection goals, which was worsened by a backlog created during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a January report by the Government Accountability Office, the FDA was facing a swelling list of food safety inspections that were on track to miss deadlines mandated by Congress, as they struggled to hire and retain qualified inspectors. 

While current inspections are still taking place, multiple FDA officials said that cuts are likely to worsen delays caused by other challenges introduced by the Trump administration’s efforts to cut spending in recent months.

As one example, multiple officials said that field operations have been hampered by a new government-wide $1 limit on spending cards. Any spending above that limit requires a cumbersome approval process. 

Inspectors had already been asked to plan their inspections a month in advance due to the delays caused by the spending limit, one official said. 

• Health
• Food and Drug Administration
• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
• FDA

Inflation-weary Americans may soon find they’re paying more for a host of products after President Trump announced two new types of tariffs on April 2, a day he termed “Liberation Day” because he believes the measures will erase trade imbalances between the U.S. and other nations. 

While Mr. Trump characterizes tariffs as paid by other nations, they are in fact paid by U.S. importers, such as Walmart or Amazon. Because the tariffs create higher costs for those businesses, they typically pass on all or some of the tariffs to consumers through price hikes.

The new tariffs introduced by Mr. Trump on Wednesday include a 10% universal tariff, as well as so-called reciprocal tariffs on 60 countries that are trade partners with the U.S. The tariffs will be additive, meaning that imports will face both the universal tariff of 10% plus the specific reciprocal import levies targeting each nation.

During his announcement, Mr. Trump’s said the tariffs will would eventually lower prices for Americans, an issue on which voters say they want him to focus. But economists are predicting instead that consumers and businesses will likely encounter higher inflation, with price hikes on everything from food imports like coffee and chocolate to iPhones and other electronics manufactured outside the U.S.

“For all of President Trump’s talk of a new ‘golden age,’ this huge tax increase will inevitably result in higher prices for American families, lower growth and business investment, and diminished exports and manufacturing output as the country’s factories face retaliation abroad and costlier inputs (roughly half of all imports) at home,” said Scott Lincicome and Colin Grabow, trade experts at the Cato Institute, in an email. 

They added, “With today’s announcement, U.S. tariffs will approach levels not seen since the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, which incited a global trade war and deepened the Great Depression.”

The Trump administration said there are some exclusions to the tariffs, including semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and critical minerals, although it added that these products might be subject to tariffs at a later time.

Which products will become more expensive with tariffs? 

Because of the 10% universal tariff on imports, any imported good is likely to become more expensive in the coming weeks and months as American companies digest the import duties and adjust their prices in response. 

For instance, after Mr. Trump added tariffs to imported washing machines during his first term, the median price of an appliance jumped more than 11%, adding about $86 to the cost of a new unit, according to University of Chicago researchers.

Electronics like iPhones and TVs

Among the nations targeted by Mr. Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are China, Taiwan and South Korea, who are top exporters of electronics to the U.S., from Apple iPhones to television sets. 

The Trump administration plans to hit China with a reciprocal tariff of 34%, which means that products manufactured there and imported into the U.S. could see higher prices soon after the levies go into effect on April 9. 

Almost all iPhones are still manufactured in China, according to the Council on Foreign Relations, although Apple has shifted some of its iPhone fabrication to India. However, the Trump administration will also be adding a 26% reciprocal tariff to Indian imports, it said on Wednesday. 

“Apple produces basically all their iPhones in China and the question will be around exceptions/exemptions on this tariff policy if those companies are building more operations/factories/plants in the U.S.,” said Wedbush analyst Dan Ives in an April 2 research note.

Automobiles

In addition to Mr. Trump’s previously announced 25% tariff on auto imports, which go into effect today, imported autos will also face the 10% universal tariffs. Some U.S.-made vehicles include parts imported from other countries, which will face new tariffs and increase the purchase price of those cars, experts said.

Ultimately, American consumers could end up paying an additional $2,500 to $5,000 for the lowest-cost American cars, and up to $20,000 for some imported models, according to an April 2 estimate from Anderson Economic Group.

Clothing and shoes

The bulk of apparel and shoes sold in U.S. stores like Walmart and Target is manufactured outside the U.S., with China, Vietnam and Bangladesh among the biggest exporters. 

All three nations will face reciprocal tariffs from the Trump administration, at 34% for China, 46% for Vietnam and 37% for Bangladesh. 

Wine and spirits

Italian and French wines and Scottish whisky are also likely to rise in price, as European Union imports will face a reciprocal tariff of 20% while United Kingdom-made products will face a 10% import duty. 

Furniture

About 30% to 40% of furniture sold in the U.S. is manufactured in other countries, according to CNBC. Top exporters of furniture to the U.S. include China and Vietnam. 

Coffee and chocolate

The U.S. imports about 80% of its coffee beans from Latin American countries such as Brazil and Colombia, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Both nations are included in Mr. Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, with each facing rates of 10%.

Chocolate is another major Latin American import, given that the U.S. climate is by and large unsuited to growing cocoa beans. Among the nations that export cocoa beans to the country are Cote d’Ivoire and Ecuador, according to the USDA. Those nations will face reciprocal tariffs of 21% and 10%, respectively. 

Swiss watches

Swiss imports to the U.S. will face a new reciprocal tariff of 31%, which will impact watches from affordable brands such as Swatch to pricey timepieces manufactured by the likes of Rolex. 

• Tariffs
• Donald Trump
• Inflation
• Trump Administration

Washington — The Senate approved a measure Wednesday aimed at blocking the Canada tariffs, as a handful of Republicans bucked President Trump.  

In a 51 to 48 vote, four Republicans joined all Democrats in favor of the measure. But the House is unlikely to take up the resolution, making the vote largely a symbolic one. 

Joining Democrats in support of the measure were Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and former GOP leader Mitch McConnell,along with Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican who co-sponsored the legislation.   

The resolution, led by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, would terminate the national emergency that the president is using to impose the tariffs, effectively blocking the sweeping levies on foreign imports. Kaine forced the vote under the National Emergencies Act, bypassing Senate Republican leadership.

The president first threatened the tariffs on Canada and Mexico in January, touting a need to enhance border security and stop the flow of fentanyl over the nation’s borders, before they were twice delayed. 

Kaine, who called the tariffs “attacks on everyday people,” said ahead of the vote that the president has justified the imposition of these tariffs on “a made up emergency.” He argued that while fentanyl is a “real emergency,” it’s not from Canada, while warning that the Canadian tariffs will tax groceries and food products, building supplies, fertilizers, along with materials that produce ships and submarines and implicate U.S. national security.

With 47 Democrats and independents in the chamber, the resolution required the support of at least four Republicans for approval. Mr. Trump put pressure on the GOP leading up to the vote, urging that “Republicans in the Senate MUST vote to keep the National Emergency in place, so we can finish the job, and end the scourge.”

“Don’t let the Democrats have a Victory,” the president said in a post on Truth Social Tuesday. “It would be devastating for the Republican Party and, far more importantly, for the United States.”

Ahead of the vote, the president called out the Republican senators who supported the measure, saying in a post in the wee hours Wednesday that “Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Rand Paul, also of Kentucky, will hopefully get on the Republican bandwagon, for a change.”

“The Senate Bill is just a ploy of the Dems to show and expose the weakness of certain Republicans, namely these four, in that it is not going anywhere because the House will never approve,” Mr. Trump continued, asking the senators’ constituents to reach out to them. 

“They have been extremely difficult to deal with and, unbelievably disloyal to hardworking Majority Leader John Thune, and the Republican Party itself,” the president added.  

Thune criticized the measure ahead of the vote, warning that it could threaten efforts to stop fentanyl from entering the country. 

“We would be wrong to view this as solely a southern border problem,” Thune said, arguing that cartels will expand fentanyl smuggling operations at the northern border if it’s not addressed. 

The majority leader pledged that Republicans intend to keep a promise to “end the lawlessness at our borders.”

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged Republicans to join Democrats in supporting the resolution, calling the tariffs a “tax increase on American families, plain and simple.”

“Every single Senate Republican should support Tim’s resolution, and support American families,” Schumer said. 

The New York Democrat cited Mr. Trump’s urging of the GOP to oppose the measure, claiming that the president is “very worried” about the resolution. 

“He knows they might lose here in the Senate,” Schumer added.

• Tariffs

President Trump on Wednesday, announced so-called reciprocal tariffs on imports from about 60 nations, in addition to a 10% across-the-board tax applied to all imports to the U.S. Describing the announcement as “Liberation Day” the president said the new taxes are needed to erase a trade deficit between the U.S. and other countries, ranging from China to the European Union. 

The tariffs will be additive, meaning that imports will face both the universal tariff of 10% plus the specific reciprocal import levies targeting each nation.

“Reciprocal. That means they do it to us, and we do it to them,” Mr. Trump said in his Wednesday remarks. 

Mr. Trump also said such levies will boost domestic manufacturing and level the playing field with other countries that impose higher tariffs on U.S. imports than the U.S. charges for their products. Still, economists are forecasting that the tariffs will cause inflation to reignite, while also prompting some trade partners to retaliate with higher tariffs on American imports to their nations. 

If the tariffs are maintained by the Trump administration and if other nations impose retaliatory tariffs, both the U.S. and other countries “will suffer serious recessions,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, in an email to CBS MoneyWatch. 

Full list of Trump’s reciprocal tariffs by country

When will these tariffs go into effect?

The reciprocal rates will become effective at 12:01 a.m. on April 9. That’s in addition to a baseline 10% tariff which goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. on April 5.

How did the Trump administration decide what tariffs to charge which countries?

Mr. Trump said his administration determined the tariff rate for each country based on the monetary levies those nations charge on U.S. imports, as well as non-monetary trade barriers like regulations that make it tougher for American products to enter those markets. 

The president added that the reciprocal tariffs are still only half the rates charged by those nations on U.S. products, characterizing his new levies as “kind.”

• Tariffs
• Donald Trump

A core element of the protectionist trade policies President Trump announced on Wednesday — a planned import tax blitz he has referred to as “Liberation Day” — are so-called reciprocal tariffs. 

“Reciprocal. That means they do it to us, and we do it to them,” Mr. Trump said in his Wednesday news conference, touting such levies as a way to boost domestic manufacturing and level the playing field with other countries that impose higher tariffs on U.S. imports than the U.S. charges for their products. 

But some economists say that tit-for-tat tariffs with key trading partners could be hard to structure, while also roiling global commerce and driving up costs for U.S. consumers and businesses. Here’s what to know about reciprocal tariffs. 

What are reciprocal tariffs?

Truly reciprocal tariffs would impose the same tax on U.S. imports that other countries charge on American exports on a product-by-product basis. For example, if a country imposed a 6% levy on American-made shoes, Mr. Trump would tax that nation’s footwear at the same rate.

Currently, the U.S. and its trading partners charge each other different levies on the same products. Germany, for instance, puts higher tariffs on vehicles made in the U.S. than what Washington, D.C., charges for German vehicle imports.

“Reciprocal means that if a country has higher tariffs than we do on certain products, we would raise it to that level,” Alex Jacquez, chief of policy and advocacy at Groundwork Collaborative, a left-leaning public policy think tank, told CBS MoneyWatch.   

That would be administratively complex given the tens of thousands of codes that determine the tariff rates on a variety of products. 

“Setting up reciprocal tariffs across every product category with every trade partner would be completely infeasible with our administrative capacity,” Jacquez said. 

Other experts suggest the goal is less about driving companies to shift their production to the U.S. or generating federal revenue than about pressuring other nations to strike trade deals that the Trump administration is comfortable with. 

Are reciprocal tariffs the same as country-based tariffs?

Rather than impose perfectly reciprocal tariffs, the White House announced country-specific tariff rates calibrated to the their trade imbalance with the U.S.

Mr. Trump on Wednesday said his administration will impose reciprocal tariffs at roughly half the rate of duties charged by other nations. The White House used a formula to calculate the sum of all the trade practices it deems unfair from other nations, including currency manipulation, tariffs and other barriers. 

For example, the U.S. will match China’s 67% rate with a 34% tariff on Chinese exports to the U.S.

“They will probably come up with a blended rate that is not reciprocal by product, but is reciprocal by saying their tariffs are 10% higher than ours on average, so we’ll be imposing 10% tariff across-the-board on all goods,” said Jacquez, who formerly worked as an economic policy analyst in the Biden administration. 

That approach could result in the U.S. taxing other nations’ products at vastly different rate than they do ours. 

“It will hit a lot of products very differently in a proximate way, because it would be balanced by country but not by import or export,” Jacquez said. “That is where complications will arise, and you could see a scenario in which countries retaliate against us.”

Who are the “Dirty 15”?

Trump administration officials have singled out a group of nations they dubbed the “Dirty 15,”  a reference to the 15% of countries expected to be hit hardest by the new reciprocal tariffs given their trade surplus with the U.S.

Those nations account for “a huge amount of our trading volume,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on March 18, without naming the trade partners. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett also told Fox News that the White House is targeting 10 to 15 nations with the biggest trade surplus with the U.S. Like Bessent, he also refrained from naming those nations. 

Simon MacAdam, deputy chief global economist with Capital Economics, thinks likely targets include leading U.S. trading partners such as China, the European Union and Vietnam. In 2024, the largest U.S. trade deficits around the globe — meaning countries from which the U.S. imports more than it exports — was with the following nations, according to federal data:

• China ($295.4 billion)
• European Union ($235.6 billion)
• Mexico ($171.8 billion)
• Vietnam ($123.5 billion)
• Ireland ($86.7 billion)
• Germany ($84.8 billion)
• Taiwan ($73.9 billion)
• Japan ($68.5 billion)
• South Korea ($66 billion)
• Canada ($63.3 billion)
• India ($45.7 billion)
• Thailand ($45.6 billion)
• Italy ($44 billion)
• Switzerland ($38.5 billion)
• Malaysia ($24.8 billion)
• Indonesia ($17.9 billion)
• France ($16.4 billion)
• Austria ($13.1 billion)
• Sweden ($9.8 billion)

Are reciprocal prices likely to drive up consumer prices?

For now, it remains unclear what reciprocal tariff rates the U.S. might charge, although UBS analysts note that the levies imposed during Mr. Trump’s first term were smaller and mostly targeted China. 

More certain is that reciprocal tariffs would mean added costs for U.S. businesses, experts say, which in turn would likely raise consumer prices as companies look to protect their profit margins. 

“Tariffs are a tax on a business bringing a product into the country. When they receive it at a port of entry, whether it be an airport or seaport, they have to pay the duty to have it admitted into the country,” Chris Barrett, a professor at Cornell SC Johnson School of Business, told CBS MoneyWatch. “You’ve just added a cost on for the business, and those costs get passed on, at least to some degree, to consumers.”

How much prices could rise remains unclear. Meanwhile, prices could fall if Mr. Trump later lowers or removes reciprocal tariffs following trade negotiations. 

But when there is no good substitute for a particular good, consumer costs are likely to rise more sharply. 

“The more price insensitive they are, the more likely they are to shoulder the burden of the tax,” Barrett said. 

• Tariffs