Agencies
From holding back investments to considering moving abroad, businesses in the United States are bracing for more economic turbulence as the presidential campaign kicks into high gear—with fresh tariffs rolled out and promises of more.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has proposed at least a 10 percent tariff on imports and up to 60 percent on Chinese goods, intensifying levies he previously imposed on Beijing and others. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, meanwhile, serves an administration that largely maintained Trump’s tariffs and last month finalized further hikes on $18 billion of Chinese products.
For Robert Actis, whose manufacturing business has been caught in the tariff maelstrom, the future has looked “clouded” over the past five years. Under Trump, he faced tariffs on steel and aluminum and has struggled to find alternative suppliers for raw materials not produced in the country.
Fresh measures on the materials by the Biden-Harris administration have added to his woes.
“I would be very happy to buy from a US producer,” said Actis, who imports wires to make stucco netting used in construction, “but there’s no one willing to do it.”
He has previously been granted tariff exemptions, but the annual applications are not always successful. Additional costs are gradually being passed to homebuilders, he said.
US tariffs weigh on many industries. The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) estimates retail prices have risen five percent to 10 percent annually since 2020. “Initially, our members tried to eat some of those costs by eating into their profits,” said Nate Herman, AAFA’s senior vice president for policy. But this has been tough.
It is unclear that tariffs on China have returned production to the United States, as Trump argues, and at least 14 US textile mills have closed in recent years, Herman told AFP. Products like certain acrylic sweaters are not produced domestically either, requiring new machinery and trained workers, he said.
