Industry groups have largely kept a low public profile during the first two months of President Donald Trump’s administration as the spectre of sweeping tariffs loomed.
After Trump announced a baseline 10% global import tax and double-digit “reciprocal tariffs” on several major trading partners Wednesday afternoon, the statements started coming. But given the magnitude of the tariffs, punches were clearly pulled.
Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, warned that the “high costs of new tariffs threaten investment, jobs, supply chains and, in turn, America’s ability to outcompete other nations and lead as the preeminent manufacturing superpower.”
“Needless to say, today’s announcement was complicated, and manufacturers are scrambling to determine the exact implications for their operations. The stakes for manufacturers could not be higher,” Timmons said.
About 56% of U.S. imports are inputs for manufacturing, according to NAM data, meaning the tariffs threaten to massively disrupt the industry. But Timmons did not publicly rebuke the president and emphasized that “manufacturers in America share President Trump’s goal of supporting manufacturing investment, growth and expansion here at home.”
In the first line of the statement from Business Roundtable, which represents the CEOs of major U.S. companies, CEO Joshua Bolten made clear the organization “supports President Trump’s goal of securing better and fairer trade deals with our trading partners, including by lowering tariffs on U.S. exports and expanding market access.”
“However, universal tariffs ranging from 10-50% run the risk of causing major harm to American manufacturers, workers, families and exporters. Damage to the U.S. economy will increase the longer the tariffs are in place and may be exacerbated by retaliatory measures,” Bolten added.
He encouraged the administration “to implement additional reasonable exemptions and put in place a transparent, predictable exclusion process.”
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce put out its own statement ahead of the announcement. The business lobbying behemoth has repeatedly warned of the risks posed by “broad-based” tariffs, and Neil Bradley, the Chamber’s chief policy officer, said Wednesday that “broad tariffs are a tax increase that will raise prices for American consumers and hurt the economy.”
But compare that to the 2016 election when the late Chamber CEO Thomas J. Donohue said Trump would be “impeached” if he imposed 45% tariffs on China, one of the country’s largest trading partners. Trump slapped a 34% tariff on China on Wednesday in addition to the 10% global tariff and a 10% tax he imposed in February on Chinese imports, meaning the total tariff on China has risen to 54%.
Conversations have undoubtedly played out behind the scenes in the business community. But aside from the stray statement praising the president or urging him to reconsider tariffs, major trade associations have appeared reluctant to cause a ruckus as the White House hashed out details that threaten to disrupt the U.S. economy and status quo for many of their members.
Two days after Trump announced last week 25% tariffs on imported cars and car parts, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the “unified voice of the automotive industry,” finally issued a lukewarm statement.
“We are committed to building and investing in the U.S., but these facilities and supply chains are massive and complex and can’t be relocated or redirected overnight,” said AAI President and CEO John Bozzella.
Trade organizations responded in a similar fashion in the face of sweeping blanket tariffs that economists across the political spectrum have warned could trigger a recession.
There are several reasons industry groups, which collect dues to fight for the interests of their members in Washington, might refrain from going head-to-head with the president during his first two months in office. The less attention they attract, especially those who loudly condemned Trump’s role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the better — theoretically. And the target kept moving as Trump imposed, delayed and retracted piecemeal tariffs in the first few weeks of his administration.
But there are few things businesses hate more than uncertainty.
“The mixed messages from the White House as to whether tariffs are merely a negotiating tactic or a mercantilist understanding of international trade has given firms and investors pause — with a slowdown in first quarter growth expected,” Gustavo Flores-Macías, a professor of government and public policy at Cornell University, said in a statement.
As Trump made clear in his Rose Garden address, however, decades of complex supply chain construction is no excuse.
“In the coming days, there will be complaints from the globalists and the outsourcers and special interests and the fake news, the fake news will always complain, but never forget every prediction our opponents made about trade for the last 30 years has been proven totally wrong,” Trump said
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Taylor Giorno is a reporter at NOTUS.