Tariffs To Have Widespread Impact On California Businesses

Here are the morning’s top stories on Friday, April 4, 2025…

• President Trump’s tariffs are sending shockwaves around the world and across car dealerships here in California, the U.S.’s largest car and truck market.  A 25% tariff is being placed on all vehicles imported into the United States, but that tariff also covers car parts that are used to assemble vehicle models associated with “Made in the USA.” The tariffs will likely mean higher prices for all kinds of new vehicles.
• Perhaps no California industry will face a bigger impact from tariffs than agriculture. In 2018, during President Trump’s first term in office, the US engaged in a trade war with China. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that farmers took a $27 billion dollar loss from retaliatory tariffs. But what will happen this time around?
• A Eureka woman is suing a Catholic hospital chain after she was denied emergency abortion care.

California Car Dealerships Prepare For Possible Impacts From Tariffs

President Trump this week unveiled sweeping “reciprocal tariffs” on goods from the world over, plus a 10% baseline tariff on U.S. imports from virtually all countries, as he seeks to reshape decades of U.S. trade policy despite warnings of higher costs for American businesses and consumers.

The president announced a 10% minimum tariff to apply to goods from all countries. However, certain trading partners will face higher, “reciprocal tariffs” aimed at penalizing them for their trade barriers. Those taxes on imported goods are calculated on a country-by-country basis, and the levels Trump announced for some trading partners are substantial. He said he plans to impose 34% tariffs on China, 20% on the European Union and 24% on Japan, among an array of other trading partners.

This comes after Trump announced late last month that he’s imposing 25% tariffs on imported cars and car parts, using his national security powers to take the action. These actions have California car dealers on edge. “I think there’s just a lot of ambiguity right now of what’s really gonna happen. How long are these tariffs gonna last? And then we just have to really see how it starts hitting the market,” said Brian Ellis who works at Glendale Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep in Los Angeles County. “I don’t think we’re really gonna see an uptick on pricing for potentially 30 to 60 days until we start getting the new inventory.”

California Farmers Brace For Fallout From Tariffs

In 2018, during President Trump’s first term in office, the U.S. engaged in a trade war with China. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that farmers took a more than $27 billion loss from retaliatory tariffs.

The new tariffs introduced by the Trump administration this week will likely have a huge impact on California farmers. “As the country’s largest agricultural exporting state, California’s farmers and ranchers are at significant risk of bearing the brunt of any potential retaliatory actions resulting from the broad imposition of global tariffs,” California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass said in a statement. “With annual exports exceeding $20 billion, our fresh fruits, vegetables, tree nuts and other commodities help feed not only the state and the nation, but communities around the world.”

Colin Carter, a professor of agricultural economics at UC Davis, said during the last trade war with China, California growers suffered. “A perfectly good example is tree nuts. They had a very large share in the China market prior to the 2018-2019 trade war launched by President Trump. The US market share in China for tree nuts at that time was over 90%,” he said. “The trade war caused China to retaliate and raise its own tariffs against the U.S. and against California. And that market share of tree nuts going to China fell from 94% to 53%. And what happened was that China increased its own production to a certain extent, but they also pivoted to other countries. And that market share has not come back.”

In response to the tariffs, Governor Newsom has directed his administration to pursue new trade relationships with international partners. He’s also called on longtime trade partners to exempt California-made products from retaliatory measures.

Catholic Hospital Chain Sued Over Denying Patient Abortion Care

A Eureka woman is suing a Catholic hospital chain after she was denied emergency abortion care.

In February of 2024, Eureka resident Dr. Anna Nusslock was 15 weeks pregnant when her water broke. Multiple doctors told her that the twins she was carrying would not survive, and if she didn’t receive an emergency abortion, neither would she. But Providence St. Joseph Hospital told Nusslock that it could not provide her with an abortion due to a hospital policy prohibiting medical intervention so long as “fetal heart tones” were present.

While experiencing bleeding and “blinding pain,” Nusslock was rushed 12 miles to Mad River Community Hospital in Arcata, California, where she received a life-saving surgery.

The new lawsuit was filed against the hospital and its controlling parent entities.