In June, President Donald Trump enacted a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on imported aluminum from all countries except South Korea, Argentina, Brazil, and Australia. Next came a tariff on $50 billion worth of goods from China, accompanied by the threat of a tariff on another $200 billion in the future. In response, China, Mexico, the European Union, Canada, and India slapped their own tariffs on billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. exports, from whiskey to machine parts to dried fruit.
MyChamplainValley.com
NAFTA Compromise Weighs Heavy on Governors, Canadian Premiers
STOWE, Vt. – The 42nd annual Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers is underway at Stowe Mountain Lodge Resort in Stowe.
In New England, the trade war with China is hitting twice as hard. Not only have lobster exports been hit with tariffs, so has the steel used to make the traps.
The Boston Globe
A Lobster Trap Captures the Complexities of a Global Trade War
NORTHBRIDGE — Every month, Jim Knott Jr. orders at least a thousand tons of steel rods for his wire factory here in the Blackstone Valley. But the shipment from Canada that arrived in June carried an unwelcome addition: an extra charge of $54,000 to cover a new tariff President Trump imposed on foreign steel as part of his aggressive trade policy.
NEWS CENTER Maine
Steel Tariffs Could Impact Lobster Traps, Industry
PORTLAND (NEWS CENTER Maine) — The lobster industry could be trapped in tariffs. The Maine International Trade Center is surveying lobstermen in the state, who’ve told them they are being pinched by tariffs on lobster exported to China, and by steel and aluminum taxes on lobster traps.
Fish Information & Services
Higher Trap Price Adds Further Trouble to Maine’s Lobstermen Sector
Maine’s lobster industry is now facing a new hurdle: rising lobster trap prices due to the increased cost of steel and labor for makers of this fishing gear.
Bloomberg Television
Iconic New England Lobster Caught in Global Tariff Tit-for-Tat
Veteran lobsterman Billy Mahoney is already feeling the pinch — and not from the claws of his catch.
The Telegram & Gazette
Trade Policy Slaps Central Mass. Companies with Price Hikes
The letter from Canada brought unwelcome news.
ArcelorMittal, a steel manufacturer, announced it was hiking the price of steel it sells to Riverdale Mills Corp. of Northbridge by 25 percent starting June 1 to cover the cost of a new U.S. tariff.
China is threatening to impose new tariffs on lobsters from the U.S. in what could be the latest volley in a growing trade war. But the American lobster industry is already starting to feel the impact of steel tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
Portland Press Herald
Wary U.S. Businesses Prepare for Trade War
President Trump wants to level the playing field for American companies in the global economy, but his combative stance has unsettled business plans from the Atlantic to the Pacific. From Washington cherry farms to Midwestern chemical plants to New England lobster-trap makers, the risk of global trade war is creating anxiety among executives whose firms rely on foreign markets for revenue or to keep costs down with imported products.