WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Wednesday, President Donald Trump will roll out his sweeping tariff plans. The final details of the plans are limited but we expect him to announce so-called ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, which would match the rates charged by other countries. An economist told us consumers will be the ones absorbing the costs.
“It’s simple, if you make your product in America, you will pay no tariffs,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. Leavitt claims many companies are already investing more in the US ahead of the announcement.
“The president is focused on reshifting our global economy so America is the manufacturing superpower of the world,” said Leavitt.
“These tariffs are a dagger to the hearts of upstate New York,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D- NY).
Democrats said the US should adjust trade imbalances but aim those efforts towards places like China where they claim they take away a lot of American jobs.
Trump wants to use tariffs because he believes it will protect American jobs and manufacturing companies. We asked the Senator about that:
“Look, you use a scalpel not a blunder bust,” said Sen. Schumer. “There may be certain tariffs that protect New York jobs and protect American jobs and companies but when you do it in the chaotic way he’s doing it, when you’re doing it in the cross the board the way he’s doing it and you make Canada, our number one trading partner and friend, the focal point and not China, you’re making a big mistake.”
New York’s Chatauqua County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, Dan Heitzenrater, said they’ve been monitoring the tariff situation and have heard many concerns about the uncertainty surrounding them. Many of their local businesses trade globally, especially in Canada and China. Heitzenrater said these tariffs could impact local business.
“We’re a manufacturing area for sure and we’ve already heard about manufacturers who have sourced their raw material out like Canada, so you talk about the steel aluminum those are things that are dealing with,” said Heitzenrater, referring to the tariffs on steel aluminum. “As well as companies that are part of a larger corporation that has facilities in different countries around the world or around the region that may need to look at how their staging or parts and pieces or what their manufacturing process looks like.”
He also adds the local agriculture industry could be impacted.
“We have a juice processor who is very concerned about the reciprocal tariffs so they believe it or not ship a lot of juice to China and they also have a very large customer in Canada, so if those reciprocal tariffs are put in place then it will hit them on the export side as well,” said Heitzenrater. “A local restaurant owner who imports a lot of their packaging and all of those sorts of odds and ends things that are produced somewhere else. Those costs are gonna go up. They’re worried when the dishwasher breaks down again, my replacement part will come out of China, so how much more expensive will that be to fix again?”
We will be monitoring the President’s announcement on tariffs.
