Empire State residents have paid more in fashion tariffs than consumers in any other state since the second Donald Trump presidential term began, ushering in waves of new tariffs.
Research from the National Taxpayers Union Foundation revealed that New Yorkers have paid about $15 billion in total tariff costs since January 2025 for an average per-household impact of $1,856. According to the group’s research, clothes and shoes have been the import categories most heavily hit by Trump’s tariffs over the past year and a half.
Related Stories
Three other states also saw the biggest tariff impacts to these categories. Colorado consumers spent $1.7 billion on tariff costs (for a per-household impact of $672), Delawareans collectively spent $893 million (costing households about $2,166) and Maine residents shelled out $275 million in aggregate, with the average household paying $447 more due to duties.
As the world’s fourth-largest economy with an annual GDP of over $4.4 trillion, California tops the list, which includes all 50 states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. “California pays the most—an estimated $63 billion in executive tariffs since January 2025—followed by Texas ($37 billion) and Michigan ($23 billion),” the National Taxpayers Union Foundation wrote. The most deeply impacted products across all three states are cars and trucks, the research showed.
The assessment, which is compiled from United States Census Bureau data and updated quarterly, showed that while most states also saw vehicles most drastically impacted from a cost perspective, some buck the trend. In Oklahoma, where consumers have paid a total of $1.8 billion in added tariff costs, household goods saw the greatest price pressures. In Minnesota, where residents have doled out $4.8 billion on the added cost of duties, toys and games saw the biggest increases.
Like some of these categories, the vast majority (nearly 90 percent) of the apparel and fashion goods that Americans consume are produced in offshore locales, making them subject to import duties.
Most apparel imports face a baseline Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) rate that hovers around 16.5 percent, but charges are stacking up quickly. The Trump administration’s recently completed Section 301 investigation into 60 economies over allegations that they failed to implement or enforce bans on imports made with forced labor resulted in 10-12.5 percent duties on those countries, including prominent apparel sourcing hubs like China, the European Union, Mexico, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Guatemala and Vietnam.
Major American brands and retailers have copped to raising prices to offset the added costs associated with duties, especially the president’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) tariffs, which were imposed on April 2, 2025—otherwise known as “Liberation Day”—and invalidated by the Supreme Court in February. Refunds from the U.S. Treasury began hitting importers’ accounts in May, and irked consumers have taken companies to task for failing to share their windfall after charging more for retail goods.
Since then, the administration has been rebuilding its tariff regime around the Section 301 forced labor duties and other sectoral and country-specific tariffs. The results of a second Section 301 investigation into 16 economies over charges of maintaining structural excess capacity are said to be forthcoming, and could result in the imposition of more double-digit duties on the targeted countries and trade blocs.
