Here’s a little homework for you: Stop by your local grocery store and walk down the aisles of packaged, wrapped, canned, bottled or frozen goods and flip some of the products around to see their rear label.

Count up how many of them say “A product of Japan,” “A product of Mexico,” “A product of Canada,” and any other country other than the United States. Now imagine paying more for each and every one of those products, or those products disappearing off the shelf altogether because it’s no longer profitable to ship them to Hawaiʻi.

You don’t have to be an economist to know that Hawaiʻi, even under good circumstances, was an expensive place to live even before the announcement of President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs.

Go on Instagram and you’ll already start to see local companies posting that they’ll have to charge higher prices because of the tariffs. Whether it’s food trucks that need imported Asian ingredients, or local clothing manufacturers that require fabrics from abroad, it’s difficult to make things in Hawaiʻi without an affordable, predictable supply of goods from around the world.

Guam Is In The Same Boat

When I lived in Guam from 1990 to 1992, many of the products that were on the shelves there were imports from Asia. The situation is no different today.

Both Hawaiʻi and Guam have unique challenges that make them stand out in the Trump tariff era. One, they both host massive military populations that increase consumption of local goods, and second, their isolated locations in the Pacific make it impossible to produce what is needed to sustain them.

This is simultaneously a serious national security issue and a domestic crisis of our own making. On one hand, Hawaiʻi and Guam are viewed as forward bases for the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific strategy. Yet on the other hand, our president has effectively self-embargoed his own military and people with his tariff strategy.

Now I know this president has pivoted from saying during the campaign that the price of consumer goods would come down if he were elected to now saying we’re all going to have to endure a little pain and not buy as many pencils or dolls for our kids for Christmas. Like I said earlier, that’s if the products are even on the shelves, because a lot goes into making even the simplest product like a pencil, and if you disrupt the supply of just one of those components, you could stop seeing that product altogether. (Watch economist Milton Friedman’s classic “I, Pencil” discussion for more on this.)

If you ask me, Hawaiʻi elected leaders should team up with Guam’s leaders and petition the Trump administration for exemptions, citing both national security and the general welfare of their populations, to get around the new Trump tariffs. 

In Hawaiʻi’s case, we need both an exemption from the Jones Act (Guam already has one) and the Trump tariffs, because the combined effect of those mercantilist policies will effectively squash local businesses and residents.

We Have To At Least Try

To Hawaiʻi’s elected Democratic leadership: Even though this ask is a long shot, it is an ask that you need to be seen on the record making. Our people need to see our elected officials at least try to get the tariffs lifted for us, because our situation is unique and sensitive to global upheaval. 

As I’ve said before, Hawaiʻi Democrats need to try to reach Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and appeal to her as someone from Hawaiʻi and get her to advocate for the plight of the people still here that she once represented. (Tulsi, I know you care about Hawaiʻi, and you have the ear of the president; you need to tell Trump to cool it on tariffs.)

To Hawaiʻi’s minority senators and representatives at the state Legislature: You guys need to be just as outraged about tariffs as you were under the Biden administration when you found out that Gabbard purportedly was on a TSA screening list and write a memo to Trump calling for an exemption. I know many of you, pre-Trump, were free market conservatives, so I’d like to remind you that autarky is impossible on islands like Hawaiʻi and Guam.

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Former Congressman Ron Paul in 1981 wrote about why free trade is essential to liberty when he warned, “If I had to grow my own food, make my own clothes, build my own house, and teach my own children, our family’s living standard would plummet to a subsistence, or below subsistence level.”

There’s no way that Hawaiʻi can build local, grow local and produce local enough to dig ourselves out of the hole we’ve just been thrown in by this radical shift in trade policy. Make no mistake, Hawaiʻi’s people are going to suffer because of the Trump tariffs.

You Republicans at the Legislature can, for political expediency, remain silent and act like nothing is wrong. Perhaps praising Trump or deferring to Trump may win you individual benefits or occasional appearances on national media. Perhaps staying in your lane and only talking about culture war or religious issues may allow you to remain in office without addressing the overarching controversy of the president.

But know this, a reckoning will come for every Republican, local and national alike, when the disgusted and harried public finds their pocketbooks and grocery shelves empty.

I’ve noticed in recent years that we’ve developed a mindset where we don’t even try anymore. We just shrink into ourselves and don’t have courageous conversations, don’t ask for help, don’t ask for mercy, and don’t tell it like it is.

Well, that’s not good enough. The people of Hawaiʻi are counting on those in power to do something. Even if we fail, we have to try to help our people. It’s time to ask for exemptions and stand up for our future.