{"id":3118,"date":"2018-10-11T01:05:03","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T01:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/the-manufacturers-fighting-trumps-tariffs\/"},"modified":"2018-10-11T01:05:03","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T01:05:03","slug":"the-manufacturers-fighting-trumps-tariffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/the-manufacturers-fighting-trumps-tariffs\/","title":{"rendered":"The manufacturers fighting Trump’s tariffs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"Rick<\/span>

Image caption<\/span>
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\n Rick Huether’s family has run Independent Can Co since 1948
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rick Huether’s family has run a manufacturing company in Maryland since the 1940s. So he knows a bit about keeping blue-collar jobs in America.<\/p>\n

But now he, like many other manufacturers in the US, is worried.<\/p>\n

In March, President Donald Trump announced steep tariffs on foreign steel and aluminium, citing the need to protect those industries.<\/p>\n

But the move has left hundreds of other firms, including Mr Huether’s Independent Can Co, exposed.<\/p>\n

His firm, which employs more than 400 people and takes over $100m (\u00a377m) in annual sales, relies on tin-plated steel from Europe and Canada to make specialty products such as biscuit tins and coffee cans.<\/p>\n

The tariffs are expected to add about $1.5m in surprise expense this year. And Mr Huether says they have already cost him one long-time customer, who turned to China amid the uncertainty.<\/p>\n

“We need a strong steel industry – no question about it,” he says. “But I don’t think they’ve thought through the ramifications.”<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Donald Trump says reviving the steel and aluminium industries is vital to national security, but now other firms are in peril
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To assuage business concerns, the Commerce Department said it would allow firms to apply for exemptions from the tariffs. <\/p>\n

The department rules on the request after a comment period, during which metal producers can object.<\/p>\n

Instead of calming debate, however, the procedure has triggered new turmoil, after companies overwhelmed the department with requests.<\/p>\n

About 800 businesses, including Independent Can, submitted more than 34,000 petitions, citing issues such as as quality flaws, delivery delays and lack of production in the US.<\/p>\n

As of 10 September, officials had decided on more than 4,300 of the requests, approving about 55%. <\/p>\n

But the majority of the applications are still pending, leaving Independent Can and many others in limbo.<\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Rick Huether says he’s had problems with US metal suppliers, including quality flaws and delivery delays
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It’s very frustrating. If we could buy domestic, we would buy everything domestic,” says Mr Huether, who submitted more than 30 requests and estimates he has spent about $100,000 trying to navigate the process. <\/p>\n

“We only went overseas because quality issues domestically forced us.”<\/p>\n

‘Can of worms’<\/h2>\n

The decision lag has led to fierce lobbying and complaints from Republicans and Democrats alike about a lack of transparency and bureaucratic micromanagement.<\/p>\n

Nor has it escaped notice that many of the denials appear to be prompted by objections from steelmakers – an industry with close ties to the administration. <\/p>\n

For example, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross used to own steel companies, while the head of steelmaker Nucor advised Mr Trump during the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n

The Commerce Department has twice revised its process, bringing on more staff and expanding the opportunities for manufacturers to respond to the objections, but their frustration remains high.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Image copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
\n
\n Is this just temporary pain?
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\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“There’s no criteria,” says Chad Bown, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.<\/p>\n

“So of course it opens up a huge can of worms and concerns that for anybody who gets [a waiver], it’s favouritism or corruption or just not transparent.”<\/p>\n

‘Adjustment problem’<\/h2>\n

US Steel, one of the firms that opposed Mr Huether’s requests, declined to comment on how the administration is handling the process.<\/p>\n

But a company spokeswoman said its expansion plans – it has already restarted one blast furnace and is preparing to restart another – showed it had the ability to meet US demand.<\/p>\n

Peter Morici, an emeritus professor at the University of Maryland business school, says politicians are dramatising the problems ahead of US congressional elections in November.<\/p>\n

As US steel and aluminium makers boost capacity, the kinds of issues cited by manufacturers should subside, he adds.<\/p>\n

“In the near term, there’s an adjustment problem,” Mr Morici says. “In the longer term, there’s no steel that we can’t make here.”<\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Rick Huether worries that higher prices will prompt his customers to turn away from his products and use paper or plastic packaging instead
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But many firms can’t afford to wait, especially as the surging demand for US-made metals has led to higher prices, says Christine McDaniel, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center, a pro-free market think tank housed at George Mason University, who has analysed the requests.<\/p>\n

“Eventually this does come out of the bottom line of firms, of shareholders or of consumers. You can’t escape it,” she says. “And small and medium-sized manufacturers are the ones that are feeling the brunt of this right now.”<\/p>\n

Companies in Missouri, Indiana, Illinois and elsewhere have announced hundreds of layoffs already. Other firms have scaled back expansion plans or said they will shift work overseas.<\/p>\n

Independent Can raised prices in September, breaking with its custom of setting prices at the start of the year. <\/p>\n

It is looking to automate lower-skilled jobs, often filled by temporary workers, to reduce expenses. <\/p>\n

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Global Trade<\/h2>\n

More from the BBC’s series taking an international perspective on trade:<\/a><\/p>\n

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Mr Huether says he’s not optimistic about winning waivers, especially since the department denied some already after objections from steelmakers.<\/p>\n

He’s hoping the administration will still work out a deal with allies, like Canada, but the odds of that happening quickly aren’t great, says the Peterson Institute’s Chad Bown.<\/p>\n

The trade deals that Mr Trump has renegotiated – such as the revised North American Free Trade Agreement<\/a> – have left the tariffs in place, Mr Bown notes.<\/p>\n

Independent Can got its start in 1929 when a booming steel industry spawned a cluster of metal-related firms around the port in Baltimore – and is one of the few from that era still standing.<\/p>\n

Mr Huether, whose family took it over two decades later, says he shares Mr Trump’s goal of reviving blue-collar work, but tariffs aren’t the right tool. <\/p>\n

“This isn’t what they were trying to do,” Mr Huether says. “We’re a casualty.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Image caption Rick Huether’s family has run Independent Can Co since 1948 Rick Huether’s family has run a manufacturing company in Maryland since the 1940s. So he knows a bit about keeping blue-collar jobs in America. But now he, like many other manufacturers in the US, is worried. In March, President Donald Trump announced steep … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}