{"id":23822,"date":"2018-03-26T08:09:32","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T06:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/modern-wilderness.flywheelsites.com\/?p=23822"},"modified":"2018-03-26T08:09:32","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T06:09:32","slug":"trump-talks-tariffs-industry-fears-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/trump-talks-tariffs-industry-fears-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Talks Tariffs, Industry Fears Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is too early to tell exactly what the effects of President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum will have on the office furniture industry as exactly who and what will face tariffs remains fluid. But it certainly has sparked the attention of an industry that uses a lot of the raw materials.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Though the details of the tariffs remain fluid, here is the basic plan Trump is proposing: 25 percent tariffs on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. Though that alone could potentially hurt manufacturers in the office furniture industry, the larger worry is that the tariffs could set off a trade war with allies and foes alike. And that could undermine the global trading system.<\/p>\n

BIFMA sends letter to President Trump<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>A few industry leaders are speaking out on the tariff plan, urging President Trump to reconsider his actions. BIFMA<\/a> <\/span>acted quickly by sending the following letter to President Trump, authored by Executive Director Tom Reardon:<\/p>\n

\u201cBIFMA is the trade\u00a0association\u00a0representing\u00a0business and institutional furniture manufacturers\u00a0across North America. Since 1973,\u00a0BIFMA\u02bcs role has been to\u00a0monitor the state of the industry, serve as a forum\u00a0for member cooperation and collaboration, and sponsor the development and refinement of\u00a0product\u00a0standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cBIFMA projects that its member companies will experience a significant increase in steel and aluminum costs in 2019 as the result of the recently proposed\u00a0tariffs\u00a0and related inflation. BIFMA further projects the increased material cost will have\u00a0a\u00a0negative impact on market demand, likely leading to a net job loss in\u00a0this sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe encourage the Administration to reconsider\u00a0the\u00a0imposition of\u00a0tariffs. Taxing goods and materials coming into the U.S. will\u00a0likely\u00a0result in retaliatory actions\u00a0from other countries.\u00a0We believe that diplomacy and trade negotiations are a preferable course of action to resolve trade imbalances as opposed to\u00a0the\u00a0implementation of\u00a0tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump made protecting American industry a keystone to his campaign in 2016. \u201cIt will be American steel that will fortify America\u2019s crumbling bridges,<\/em>\u201d he said while campaigning. Steel is especially important in some swing states like Pennsylvania that helped get Trump elected. Steel employment has fallen from nearly 650,000 workers in the 1950s to about 140,000 today. Closed steel mills litter the Midwest and many producers believe that can be blamed on other countries \u201cdumping\u201d cheap steel into the U.S. market.<\/p>\n

Steelcase disagrees on tariffs<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>Trump has placed a lot of blame on China and its government for subsidizing production of the metals in violation of global trade rules, which many analysts say has\u00a0flooded the global market\u00a0with low-cost product and sent prices plunging. U.S. producers believe this dumping should be met with tariffs or quotas.<\/p>\n

Steelcase<\/a><\/span>, the largest office furniture maker in the world, disagrees. Spokesperson Katie Woodruff responded to questions about the tariffs with the following response:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur initial assessment of the\u00a0steel and aluminum\u00a0tariffs\u00a0the President has announced indicates\u00a0negative and unintended consequences that run counter to the administration\u2019s intention.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we do purchase the vast majority of our raw steel domestically, there is some material we require not available through U.S. suppliers.\u00a0As a result, the company is likely to experience\u00a0a\u00a0negative financial impact on\u00a0our\u00a0raw material spending.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteelcase is committed to maintaining operational agility so it can adapt to global market change and ensure business continuity. As such, the company has been following this issue carefully\u00a0\u2013\u00a0and making our voice heard through direct appeals to\u00a0elected officials\u00a0\u2013\u00a0since the U.S. Commerce Department began investigating potential steel and aluminum\u00a0tariffs\u00a0last year. In fact, we have been fighting to protect a particular type of steel used in our PolyVision products for more than two years \u2013 and\u00a0won an\u00a0exclusion\u00a0from\u00a0tariffs\u00a0last year.\u00a0We will\u00a0again seek an exclusion for this steel to ensure we can protect our business.<\/p>\n

\u201cSteelcase strongly supports measures to ensure a fair and level playing field, and is willing to work with other companies and government officials to reach that goal. In this instance, and with these particular\u00a0tariffs, we do not believe that will be the result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tariffs didn\u00b4t stop industry decline in the past<\/h4>\n

While some might blame Trump for playing politics, he is not the only U.S. president \u2014 from either party \u2014 to impose tariffs on steel. Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan applied either quotas\u2014import limits\u2014or price floors on steel. That does not mean any of them were correct. Economic studies\u00a0have shown\u00a0that these measures did little to stop the decline of the industry.<\/p>\n

One need not go back that far to see examples of tariffs. The administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama both applied steel tariffs. Bush imposed broad tariffs of up to 30 percent on steel imports in 2002. These were meant to last three years but were withdrawn early, after the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled against them. Some\u00a0research has shown\u00a0that these tariffs cost the U.S. economy as many as 200,000 jobs. Meanwhile, Obama\u00a0applied tariffs\u00a0of up to 522 percent on some Chinese steel in 2016.<\/p>\n

Even though the office furniture industry is concerned about the long term effects of the tariffs, many large steel and aluminum producers are pleased. The American Iron and Steel Institute\u00a0thanked Trump\u00a0for \u201caddressing the steel crisis,\u201d and the second-largest American aluminum producer, Century Aluminum, said the measures will spur them to increase domestic investment.<\/p>\n

However, most economists say that the tariffs are unlikely to help U.S. producers. They point to previous attempts to protect the steel industry that have\u00a0failed to arrest\u00a0the sector\u2019s decline, and they say that innovation in the industry, not imports, are primarily to blame for lost jobs. Declining demand for steel is another major factor, with U.S. consumption\u00a0falling almost in half since the 1970s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is too early to tell exactly what the effects of President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum will have on the office furniture industry as exactly who and what will face tariffs remains fluid. But it certainly has sparked the attention of an industry that uses a lot of the raw materials.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":21992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"Trump Talks Tariffs, Industry Fears Costs - BIFMA sends letter to Trump","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3148],"tags":[39,177,4916],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":{"app_titel":"","app_article":""},"yoast_head":"\nTrump Talks Tariffs, Industry Fears Costs | OfficeRepublic<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/officerepublic.news\/en\/2018\/03\/trump-talks-tariffs-industry-fears-costs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump Talks Tariffs, Industry Fears Costs | OfficeRepublic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is too early to tell exactly what the effects of President Donald Trump\u2019s proposed tariffs on steel and aluminum will have on the office furniture industry as exactly who and what will face tariffs remains fluid. 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