Executives in some industries, like steel, say the new protections will boost domestic demand for their products. Labor unions have backed parts of Trump’s plans, too.

But economists still expect the levies to lead to slower growth in the US, as company profits take a hit. Firms must then cut back on investing or risk hurting sales by raising prices, or both.

Waza, a Los Angeles shop that employs about 30 people in the US selling Japanese-made products like kitchen knives and incense, has already started raising prices 10% to 20%.

Executive Vice-President Anri Seki said sales were holding up and, after months of uncertainty, she hoped the business would be able to move forward.

But the back-and-forth has pushed the firm to consider looking outside the US to expand.

Despite efforts in Japan and the US to sell a deal on a 15% tariff as positive, she said the outcome was disappointing.

“It just feels unfair,” she said. “It’s really hard for everyone to see what is the good ending point.”

Recently, Goldman Sachs analysts estimated the tariffs would lower US growth by 1 percentage point this year.

Still, shares in the US have soared to new highs, as fears that gripped financial markets after Trump’s so-called Liberation Day tariff announcement in April have abated.

Consumer confidence has picked up, prices have remained contained and the job market is still chugging.

Some of that is from earlier uncertainty being resolved, said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Budget Lab at Yale University, who predicts the levies will shave about 0.8 percentage points off growth this year.

“There is a vast valley between ‘good’ and ‘recession’,” he said. “There’s this middle ground of ‘not great’…And I think that is what we’re looking at with tariffs.”

But Tim Quinlan, senior economist at Wells Fargo, said people may be underestimating risks.

Consumer spending on discretionary services, like taxi rides or air travel, slipped in the first five months of the year – something that has only happened during or immediately after recessions, he noted.

He said that did not necessarily mean “a recession is around the corner”, but cautioned it had “raised doubts about the ability of the consumer to continue to underpin the economy”.