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Slater: Steel and aluminum tariffs cost farmers, risk jobs

The President of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers says the steel and aluminum tariffs President Trump placed on imported materials are affecting more than just the cost of machinery in the U.S.  Dennis Slater says, “If you pass the costs on, and your tractor or combine is more expensive, it’s kind of hard to sell that on the world marketplace when your competitors in Europe, Japan, and Korea, they don’t have those same tariffs, so suddenly your export market goes down, too.”

Slater tells Brownfield getting the aluminum and steel is easy, but farmers and other consumers are paying more.  “I don’t think it’s getting more difficult for the raw materials, but it’s getting more expensive to have that, and then it’s getting the fact that now you have to pass that cost on or absorb those costs.”

And, Slater says that’s slowing down purchases domestically and internationally, which puts jobs at risk.  “Our industry alone, in equipment and manufacturing, one-point-three million workers, 159 billion dollars to the economy.  It’s a big issue here.”

Slater talked to Brownfield during a recent Tariffs Hurt the Heartland event near Milwaukee, Wisconsin.