Analysis | Never mind China: from farms to factories, Trump country could be hard hit by tariffs
International retaliation against the US tariffs could hit car makers and soy farmers alike, in key states that swept Trump to victory in 2016
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From ketchup to automobiles and soybeans, US President Donald Trump’s contentious tariffs on steel and aluminium imports could bring unintended consequences for industries in the very places that handed him his election victory.
The tariffs of 25 per cent on imported steel and 10 per cent on aluminium will come into effect in 15 days, measures the White House says will help American industry recover from unfair trade practices.
“The worry is that this is a political response that is trying to help certain communities, but it may end up hurting them,” said analyst Joseph Parilla, of the non-partisan policy research group The Brookings Institution.
“Rural areas, smaller towns, the type of communities that voted more for Trump, are extremely export-intensive,” Parilla said, adding that exports are vulnerable to retaliatory tariffs by other countries.
“The steel and aluminium sectors have been under attack by predatory trade practices,” said Leo Gerard, president of United Steelworkers International.
“Our members have actively fought for action,” he said.
But among those that use steel and aluminium to make other products, there were concerns about what could come next.
In Michigan, the auto industry was worried about rising costs at a time of slowing sales in the US market.
“Manufacturers are not prepared to absorb a sharp increase in the cost to build cars and trucks in America,” warned Cody Lusk, chief of the American International Automobile Dealers Association, which represents US dealerships of foreign car brands.
“We’re very concerned about any ramifications of what might come of this, and how it might blow back on agriculture, particularly when we’re at a situation right now with tough commodity prices anyway,” Perry Aasness of the trade group Agrigrowth Council told Minnesota Public Radio.
In Wisconsin, Republican Governor Scott Walker – Trump’s vanquished competitor for the party’s presidential nomination – sounded the alarm by touring two manufacturing plants earlier this week.
To make his point, he stood in front of large barrel-shaped rolls of thin aluminium sheets at a manufacturing plant owned by industrial products maker Bemis.
That company uses the imported aluminium to make things such as individual ketchup packets.
“If (the Trump administration’s) goals are protecting American jobs, this policy as they rolled it out will do the opposite, so I hope that they’ll reconsider,” Walker said Tuesday.
The governor’s office put out a list of other companies that could also be affected – from more expensive cans for beer producer MillerCoors to tariffs on exported motorcycles made by the iconic American brand Harley-Davidson.
“The practical application of the tariffs on steel and aluminium would lead to jobs being lost in Wisconsin and moved, not to other states, but to other countries,” Walker said.
