This is the assessment of Gavin Roberts, chairman of Weber State University’s Department of Economics and associate professor of economics at the school.

Roberts spoke with the Standard-Examiner on Thursday after what has been a week of highs and lows following President Donald Trump’s announcement of tariff hikes on trading partners throughout the world and his relenting on most of the planned tariffs in the face of severe economic backlash with the implementation of a 90-day pause.

He said that uncertainty has ruled the day when it comes to the markets and tariffs.

“The No. 1 impact that we’ve been observing recently probably relates more to uncertainty than specific tariff levels themselves, although higher tariffs also will be problematic,” he said. “A lot of the action we’ve been seeing, for example, in financial markets in the last few weeks has been based on uncertainty and sort of going back and forth on policy. … The president cancelled the tariffs almost immediately after they began this week, which caused a rally in the financial markets (Wednesday), but that’s tapering off … because, of course, he did not go back on tariffs against one of our largest trading partners, which is China.”

Roberts said if the tariffs would’ve stuck around, the main impact locally and regionally would likely be higher prices faced by consumers.

He said there wouldn’t be many direct impacts on the majority of major employers in the area.

“In terms of the largest employers in Weber County and the surrounding area, we have places like the Department of Defense and Hill Air Force Base and we also have Intermountain Healthcare as a very large employer,” he said. “Another very large employer is the IRS. Those employers actually probably will not be too impacted by tariffs.”

But with the federal government representing some of the largest employers in the area, Roberts said tariff price hikes could exacerbate another ongoing issue — the impacts from Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, colloquially called DOGE, which has been spearheaded by South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk and tasked with seeking out what it identifies as “wasteful” spending and directing job cuts throughout the government.

“The biggest risk to our economy currently is probably more related to federal spending policies and things like the Department of Government Efficiency,” he said. “The really big impact of tariffs in our region is combining that issue with the potential for higher prices for consumers as a result of tariffs. If you have uncertainty about your job or you lose your job, you’re already, obviously, taking a hit to your income. If you combine that hit to your income with higher prices as a result of tariffs, that will become a pretty big issue.”

He said he ultimately sees the DOGE cuts and the uncertainty surrounding them is the more pressing short-term issue in the Ogden area.

“Adding potential higher prices as a result of tariffs to that equation just kind of makes that situation much worse — particularly if you’re thinking about people who have savings,” he said. “Those savings are probably invested in stocks and bonds, and the the value of those savings has gone down dramatically.”

Roberts said the back-and-forth potential for tariffs also has an impact.

“The main effect is planning,” he said. “From a business perspective, say a business says, ‘I will move production back to the United States.’ I think that’s somewhat unlikely anyway, but imagine a business thinking they might do that if tariffs are really high. Well, if you observe that the tariff policy is consistently reversed and investment is on (a scale) of years and years — when we’re thinking about industrial and manufacturing investment — it’s hard to make that choice if the policy is on, and then off, on and then off, because how are you going to plan for your future?”

Roberts said it’s equally as hard for consumers to plan, especially on big purchases, if tariff policy continues to yo-yo.

“Sometimes you see increased demand in the short-term if people think tariffs are coming on,” he said. “It really just adds to the uncertainty of planning for both individual consumers and what businesses are thinking about.”

He said he’s spoken with several area business that are having emergency meetings to decide how they’re going to deal with tariffs if and when they’re implemented.