Before moving on, let’s straighten out the truth about globalization.
“The freer the flow of world trade, the stronger the tides for human progress and peace among nations.”, Ronald Reagan
The stories from business owners and exec’s who were Trump Voters and are Trump Supporters. They all agree they’re getting hurt by Trump’s Tariffs just as farmers are. #IdiotInChief
The head shaker comes from Tom Sligh, who loves Trump’s tariffs AND doesn’t mind losing money and new business. #SoMuchLosing How many more are like Tom Sligh?
Across the industrial United States, including in the crucial political battleground state of Michigan, such complaints are intensifying as the trade war disrupts factory operations that depend on imported parts.
Made in America is a myth. It’s Assembled in America!
In vowing to take a tough line with China, Mr. Trump secured 62 percent of the votes in surrounding Ottawa County. Though the tariffs he has imposed have lifted prices for parts at many factories, the president draws praise here for delivering on a central promise.
The tariffs have been sold to Americans as a means of forcing multinational companies to make their products in the United States, abandoning China, Mexico and other low-cost centers of industry. But the tariffs are threatening jobs that are already here.
Pat LeBlanc and Cory Steeby of EBW Electronics
“It’s killing us,” said the chairman of the company [EBW], Pat LeBlanc, 63, a Republican who voted for Mr. Trump. He now expects the president’s tariffs will chop his 2019 profits in half. “I just feel so betrayed. If we fail because the company is being harmed by the government, that just makes me sick.”
“It’s a tax that comes right off the bottom line,” said EBW’s president, Cory Steeby. “It totally incentivizes you to move out of the United States and build either in Canada or Mexico. These are active conversations right now.”
“At 25 percent, we are not making money,” Mr. Steeby said. “There’s a threat that you cease to exist, or there’s a threat that jobs move to Mexico.”
Tom Sligh, president of Billco Products
China’s reply, enjoy bankruptcy and unemployment. Trump specialties!
“Even though it’s hurting me, I hope we have the guts to stick it out,” said Tom Sligh, president of Billco Products, which makes cabinets, dressers and other furniture for hotels at three factories in Holland.
The tariffs have increased his costs by 10 percent, he said, but he has not been able to pass them on. He recently lost a bid to outfit a hotel in Grand Rapids when a Chinese competitor offered less than half his price.
“It sends a message to our friends in China that we are not fooling around,” Mr. Sligh said.
Larry Kooiker, president of Agritek
Larry Kooiker voted for Mr. Trump, and shares the sense that China’s trading actions require an aggressive response. But Mr. Kooiker, president of Agritek, a factory that makes a range of metal parts, says the tariffs on components have been poorly conceived.
“It’s just been a disaster,” he said, as clattering machinery pounded sheets of steel into brackets that hold shelves.
“Trump is killing us,” Mr. Kooiker said. “His bang for the buck is horrible.”
“weakening factory orders in the United States, China and Europe have deepened the sense that global growth is slowing.”
