The first casualties of President Trump’s trade war are 60 workers at Mid-Continent Nail, America’s largest nail manufacturer. They lost their jobs on June 15 at a factory in a part of Missouri that voted overwhelmingly for Trump. The whole company could be out of business by Labor Day.
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Mid-Continent Nail blames the layoffs on Trump’s tariffs, and the company says all 500 employees could lose their jobs by Labor Day. The next round of cuts could come in a matter of days.
The trouble for the company started at the end of May when Trump put a hefty 25 percent tariff on steel imports from Mexico and Canada. Mid-Continent had been importing steel from Mexico that American workers would then turn into nails.
After the tariff, the company was forced to hike its prices, and customers fled. Orders are a mere 30 percent of what they were a year ago, said George Skarich, the vice president of sales. He suspects many customers are now buying Chinese nails.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and a ton of fear in Poplar Bluff,” home to Mid-Continent, Skarich said. He voted for Trump and says he’s “disappointed” and “sad” at what's happening to a town and a company he loves.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...umps-tariffs-are-here/?utm_term=.252ec0db4182
...
Mid-Continent Nail blames the layoffs on Trump’s tariffs, and the company says all 500 employees could lose their jobs by Labor Day. The next round of cuts could come in a matter of days.
The trouble for the company started at the end of May when Trump put a hefty 25 percent tariff on steel imports from Mexico and Canada. Mid-Continent had been importing steel from Mexico that American workers would then turn into nails.
After the tariff, the company was forced to hike its prices, and customers fled. Orders are a mere 30 percent of what they were a year ago, said George Skarich, the vice president of sales. He suspects many customers are now buying Chinese nails.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and a ton of fear in Poplar Bluff,” home to Mid-Continent, Skarich said. He voted for Trump and says he’s “disappointed” and “sad” at what's happening to a town and a company he loves.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...umps-tariffs-are-here/?utm_term=.252ec0db4182