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**Hugh** · 11-08-2025, 11:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pierre

Or don’t, in so far as they don’t buy the product as it’s too expensive, and choose a cheaper home manufactured item, which is the whole point of the tariffs.

Not if they aren’t manufacturing those items in the USA anymore, and it can take years to set up a manufacturing site for complex equipment, and then train people how to use all that manufacturing equipment (as the skill sets don’t exist anymore, as it was outsourced abroad).

There’s also the aspect of home manufacturers raising prices, because they can now the competitors abroad cost more…

https://apnews.com/article/trump-tar...d5ca26a84108b#

Quote:

Josh Smith, founder and president of Montana Knife Co., called himself a Trump voter but said he sees the tariffs on foreign steel and other goods as threatening his business.

For instance, Smith just ordered a $515,000 machine from Germany that grinds his knife blades to a sharp edge. Trump had imposed a 10% tax on products from the EU that is set to rise to 15% under the trade framework he announced Sunday. So Trump’s tax on the machine comes to $77,250 — about enough for Smith to hire an entry-level worker.

Smith would happily buy the bevel-grinding machines from an American supplier. But there aren’t any. “There’s only two companies in the world that make them, and they’re both in Germany,’’ Smith said.

Then there’s imported steel, which Trump is taxing at 50%. Until this year, Montana Knife bought the powdered steel it needs from Crucible Industries in Syracuse, New York. But Crucible declared bankruptcy last December, and its assets were purchased by a Swedish firm, Erasteel, which moved production to Sweden.

Quote:

“We’re getting squeezed from all sides,’’ said Justin Johnson, president of Jordan Manufacturing Co. in Belding, Michigan, northeast of Grand Rapids. His grandfather founded the company in 1949.

The company, which makes parts used by Amazon warehouses, auto companies and aerospace firms, has seen the price of a key raw material — steel coil — rise 5% to 10% this year.

Trump has imposed 50% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. Jordan Manufacturing doesn’t buy foreign steel. But by crippling foreign competition, Trump’s tariffs have allowed domestic U.S. steelmakers to hike prices.

Johnson doesn’t blame them. “There’s no red-blooded capitalist who isn’t going to raise his prices’’ under those circumstances, he said.