NO BOOM, JUST BUST

U.S. Manufacturers Warn That Trump Is Creating a COVID-Sized Crisis

Suppliers and manufacturers are haggling over who should pick up the additional costs associated with the tariffs.

Trump said his aggressive program of tariffs would spark a manufacturing boom but he appears to have been wrong. U.S. manufacturers are warning that the president is creating a crisis akin to the disruption the COVID pandemic caused with his tariffs. Manufacturers have reported longer lead times for supplies, higher prices, and disruptions to production—even as demand dries up, Axios reported. Some of the the slowdown has been fueled by the on-again, off-again nature of Trump’s levies which have left some suppliers either delaying deliveries or scrapping them altogether. And manufacturers have been demanding faster delivery times in a race to get supplies into the country before Trump’s levies come into force. Both suppliers and manufacturers have also been left haggling over who should eat the additional costs associated with the tariffs. An OECD global outlook report published this week showed that Trump’s trade policies have slowed the global economy. The U.S. economy was hit particularly badly with the Paris-based OECD predicting its growth would slow from 2.8 percent to 1.6 percent.