Washington’s economy runs on trade, with two out of every five jobs in the state connected to global markets. Tariffs act like taxes that raise the cost of equipment and materials, making it harder for businesses to hire and keep employees. People then cut back on spending, and the slowdown spreads to sectors not directly targeted by tariffs. When foreign governments retaliate with their own tariffs, demand for Washington goods falls again. The result is fewer jobs, weaker sales, and tighter budgets for essential services.
Tariffs work like a tax on the things Washingtonians buy. Businesses pay them first, then pass the cost along through higher prices or cuts in operations. Washingtonians end up spending more but getting less, while many workers see incomes fall and opportunities shrink. These findings come from OFM’s economic model, which assumes the “Liberation Day” tariffs stay in place over the next four years.
The federal government has proposed a variety of substantial tariff increases in 2025. If the “Liberation Day” tariffs are enacted, Washington state residents and businesses could experience significant economic impacts across prices, growth, state revenues, and employment. As a trade-intensive state, Washington is particularly exposed to both the direct effects of U.S. tariffs and the likely retaliatory responses from key trading partners.
TRIP’s primary goal is to develop and maintain a data repository for public safety research which integrates data from six core areas – crash, vehicle, driver, roadway, citation and adjudications, and injury surveillance – with crash records providing the foundation for linking pre- and post-crash data.
Our primary goal of this project is to develop the TRIP repository which will integrate data from six core areas – crash, vehicle, driver, roadway, citation and adjudications, and injury surveillance - with crash records providing the foundation for linking pre- and post-crash data. By linking these sources, the state will have a comprehensive crash-outcome dataset to support federal reporting requirements and traffic safety research. We provide cross-sector, linked data and analysis through the TRIP data warehouse.
Traffic Records Integration Program data is open to the public which can be requested for research use. Data requested through TRIP may not be used for-profit research. Please submit the data request form to the TRIP inbox based on the data that best fits your needs and the TRIP Variable request form.
The TRIP program team leverages the TRIP repository data to conduct collision-related research to measure trends related to collisions and collision outcomes, identify factors related to collisions and their outcomes, and inform the design and measure the impact of roadway and vehicle safety improvements, enhanced traffic law enforcement measures, and public awareness campaigns.
Topics and Publications
This section includes publications that document research conducted by the TRIP team (coming soon).
