By David Harrison 

President Trump's tariffs on imported washing machines cost U.S. consumers about $1.5 billion a year, according to new research.

The paper released Monday found the tariffs raised the price of washing machines by 12%.

The prices of dryers, which weren't subject to the tariffs but are often sold together with washers, also rose about the same amount, according to the research by Aaron Flaaen, a Federal Reserve economist; Ali Hortaçsu and Felix Tintelnot, both of the University of Chicago.

Saying he was "committed to defending American companies," Mr. Trump in January 2018 announced a 20% tariff on the first 1.2 million washing machines imported into the U.S. each year and a 50% tariff on all subsequent units.

Administration officials touted the tariffs as a response to unfair trade practices by foreign producers that were harming U.S. manufacturers. The administration also has announced broader tariffs on around $250 billion of Chinese goods and has announced it is planning to impose tariffs on around $11 billion in imports from the European Union.

But the researchers' conclusions suggest tariffs can have unintended effects.

Mr. Tintelnot said in an interview the washing machine tariffs also raised prices on dryers because vendors preferred to spread out the full cost increase over both items since washers and dryers are frequently sold in a bundle.

"You would have seen near double the price increase for washers, if there was not this other good," he said.

Foreign appliance makers such as Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. responded to the tariffs by announcing plans to boost production in the U.S. and hire up to 1,600 new workers. Whirlpool Corp., a domestic manufacturer, said it would also hire an extra 200 workers.

The tariffs also produced $82.2 million in new government revenue between February 2018 and January 2019, according to the study.

But consumers paid the price, the research found. After taking into account the additional government revenue, each of those new jobs cost $817,000, the researchers found.

The White House had no comment.

Last year's tariffs weren't the first to be imposed on washing machine producers. In 2012, the U.S. levied duties on washers from South Korea and Mexico saying they were undercutting prices from domestic manufacturers. In response, imports of Chinese washers rose.

But instead of pushing up prices, the duties lowered them because it was cheaper to make a washing machine in China than in South Korea.

In 2016 under the Obama administration, Washington imposed tariffs on Chinese-made washing machines, which at the time made up about 80% of washers imported into the U.S. Prices rose briefly until production shifted again, this time to Vietnam and Thailand, Mr. Tintelnot said.

In 2018, by contrast, tariffs were levied on all imports, regardless of their origin, pushing up prices.

"Tariffs applied globally against many countries are much more costly for consumers than tariffs applied against one or two particular countries," he said.

Write to David Harrison at david.harrison@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 22, 2019 08:46 ET (12:46 GMT)

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