Alan Chadwick at a trade show
For almost 35 years, Wyoming entrepreneur Alan Chadwick has run his business importing clothing from China and selling the Western-style gear to stores serving “working cowboys” in the US.
Now, as former President Donald Trump campaigns on a pledge to hit all goods coming into the country with a 10%-20% tariff, or border tax, which would rise to 60% for goods from China, Chadwick is having to drastically rethink his strategy.
The 66-year-old has been exploring moving manufacturing of his products, like wool shirts with snaps and canvas jackets, to India or Pakistan – or perhaps closing his Wyoming Traders business, which employs 16 people, and retiring altogether.
Chadwick said tariffs were a “tax on the American people” and warned that the expense for a company like his of opening a factory in the US was unrealistic.
But as he prepares to cast his ballot,he expects to swallow his qualms about tariffs in favour of other priorities, such as illegal immigration and opposition to abortion.
“I will vote for Trump even though he’s going to hurt our company if he does what he says he’s going to do,” he said.
Chadwick’s readiness to look past Trump’s views on tariffs is a sign of the contradictory impulses shaping American politics.
The Republican’s platform has shifted America – once a global champion of free trade – towards an embrace of policies that are designed to protect US companies and jobs from foreign competition, despite the potential economic drawbacks.
During his first term, Trump hit thousands of items from China with tariffs – measures that President Joe Biden, despite criticising them before entering the White House, kept in place.
This year, the Republican has put plans for sweeping tariffs at the centre of his presidential campaign, calling such duties “the most beautiful word in the dictionary”.
He argues his plans – which analysts say could return the average charge on imports to the highest level in at least 50 years – will spur job creation, reinvigorate US manufacturing, drive up wages and raise billions of dollars from other countries.
“We’re going to be a tariff nation. It’s not going to be a cost to you, it’s going to be a cost to another country,” he has said on the trail.
His claims are rejected by most traditional economists, who say the policy would do little to expand employment in the US, while raising costs for everyday Americans and slowing growth around the world.
source: bbc