Last year, trade linked Maryland’s economy with more than 200 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on foreign imports — and retaliatory levies by several countries — have cast uncertainty over that integrated global network.

To understand how tariffs might affect Maryland, The Baltimore Banner analyzed data from USA Trade Online, a site maintained by the U.S. Census Bureau. Imports are classified as a good’s final destination and exports as its starting point, though economists say the figures likely include many goods that were just passing through the state.

Maryland imported $42 billion worth of goods in 2024.

Motor vehicles were Maryland’s top import by a wide margin, totaling $15.7 billion and making up 37% of all foreign goods entering the state.

Many of the state’s top import partners, including Germany, Mexico and Japan, are major car producers.

Trump’s 25% tariff on foreign cars is slowing operations at the Port of Baltimore, which is typically the nation’s largest importer of foreign vehicles.

Disruptions at the port have the potential for broad economic impacts on Baltimore, said Kislaya Prasad, a research professor with the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.

“The port [includes] people working at the ports, people working in warehouses, people working in consolidation centers where shipments are consolidated,” Prasad said. “So it’s not just directly at the port but all the surrounding industry” that’s affected.

Tariffs on Chinese imports, which rose as high as 145%, have been scaled back to 30% until mid-August. Maryland imported $2.6 billion in goods from China last year, including hundreds of millions in household appliances, plastic products, furniture and kitchen cabinets.

Last week, Trump threatened to impose a new 50% tariff on imports from the European Union, beginning July 9.

Maryland’s trade partners span the globe. The state imported $378 million in paper products from Finland, $31 million in apparel from Jordan and $4 million in cleaning products from Luxembourg last year.

Sending Maryland goods abroad

The state exported $18 billion in goods last year.

Canada was Maryland’s leading export partner, receiving $2.2 billion worth of machinery, pharmaceuticals, printed material and other goods. As part of its ongoing trade war with the U.S., Canada has applied 25% retaliatory levies on hundreds of American commodities.

Boosted by the presence of Northrop Grumman and other aerospace firms, airplanes and spacecraft were Maryland’s top export in 2024, totaling $3.5 billion and accounting for 20% of the state’s exports.

Maryland sent aerospace products to around 90 countries, including France, Morocco and Kazakhstan.

Aerospace manufacturers are especially impacted by tariffs because they depend on highly integrated global supply chains, said Hung-bin Ding, associate dean of academics at Loyola University Maryland’s Sellinger School of Business and Management.

“Complex products, the ones that require many, many suppliers and sophisticated coordination of suppliers, are more vulnerable to disruptions,” Ding said.

Tariffs on aluminum and steel are also likely to drive up production costs for aerospace manufacturers.

Pharmaceuticals, another major Maryland industry, accounted for 9% of the state’s exports.

In 2024, Maryland also exported $10 million in chemicals to Qatar, $3 million in meat products to Haiti and $40,000 in cutlery and hand tools to the African island nation of Cape Verde.

How important is trade to Maryland’s economy?

Economists expect tariffs will have localized impacts on the Port of Baltimore and on individual companies. But they are unlikely to inflict as much pain as Trump’s cuts to federal jobs and spending.

Before Trump took office, no state’s workforce was more reliant on federal jobs than Maryland’s. By comparison, trade is a small part of the state’s economy. Imports were 8% of Maryland’s gross domestic product last year, which ranked 24th in the country out of 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Exports were 3% of GDP, which ranked 43rd and was on par with states with much smaller economies, including Idaho, Montana and Maine.

Maryland’s export levels are modest, Prasad said, because its economy is centered much more on the federal government and less on manufacturing or agriculture.

“We are exposed in a slightly different way [in terms] of what happens with shutting down of agencies and what happens with less procurement and contracting by the government,” Prasad said.

Trump has vowed that his tariffs will advance a host of policy objectives, including stemming the flow of migrants and drugs into the U.S., reviving American manufacturing and correcting imbalances in the country’s imports and exports.

Critics have blamed Trump’s haphazard rollout and abrupt reversals on some tariffs for fueling volatility and uncertainty in the global economy. They have also warned that tariffs could send prices soaring, slow the flow of goods and upend economic relationships.

Ding questioned whether Maryland’s economy is built to benefit from the manufacturing boom Trump has promised, if it materializes at all. He said the time and investment required to revive manufacturing may exceed what a four-year presidential term can deliver.

“Tariffs are a conversation starter,” Ding said, “but it’s far from enough to get us where we want to be.”