OVIEDO, Fla. — President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China took effect on Tuesday.

Cars, car parts and electronics are some of the top imports that many are keeping an eye on when it comes to higher prices due to tariffs.

According to the commerce department, $1.4 trillion worth of goods from China, Canada and Mexico were shipped to the U.S. last year.

What You Need To Know

  • President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Mexico and Canada and China took effect on Tuesday

  • According to the Commerce Department, $1.4 trillion worth of goods from China, Canada and Mexico were shipped to the US last year

  • Cars, car parts and electronics are some of the top imports that many are keeping an eye on when it comes to higher prices due to tariffs

  • One local transmission repair shop that orders thousands of parts each year has no idea how tariffs will change their business in the future

Delta Transmissions & Auto Repair in Oviedo has been fixing automobiles in Central Florida for 30 years. They have seen prices on everything go up during that time period.

President of the shop, Camille Valenti, spends her days making sure parts get to the shop on time. She says there are already supply chain issues in her industry.

“A lot of the newer vehicles, the parts are not available for the customer because everything’s on national back order,” she said.

Valenti says she orders over 1,000 parts a month and hopes the new tariffs don’t disrupt supply chains and prices.

“Hopefully, some of our supply houses have enough inventory to get through it,” she said.

Valenti says that nearly all the parts she orders each year are made in other countries like China, Mexico, South Korea and Canada and hopes the tariffs motivate companies to make parts in the U.S. again.

“Hopefully it’ll push the companies back to America where they’re making the product here, where hopefully we would have quality control,” she said.

Rollins College business professor Mark Johnston says new tariffs may or may not raise prices immediately.

“The products that come in and are being tariffed today, the public will not be able to buy those products for days or even weeks from now," said Johnston. "It needs to move through the supply chain.”

Prices that go up immediately for consumers are usually the result of people taking advantage of the tariffs.

Johnston says the hike on imported goods is a way for countries like the U.S. to try and change the “business as usual.”  

“The purpose of any tariff is to change behavior. And so that’s what tariffs are being used for here,” said Johnston.