The cost of tariffs to Iowa

Republicans campaign that they’re the pro business party that wants to get rid of regulations hindering the free flow of commerce.

Actions by President Trump during the past two weeks have pretty much put that idea to rest.

Suppose you’re running a business. You’re trying to plan your budget for the year and all of a sudden you find out you’re going to have to pay 25% more for your supplies. That’s a real punch to your wallet.

We normally think that tariffs only affect big manufacturers like General Motors and John Deere. But it also affects small outfits like this newspaper.

Just two weeks ago we learned that newsprint imported from Canada would be subject to a 25% tariff. Most newspapers in the USA are printed on Canadian newsprint since most American newsprint mills shut down years ago. That big hike in newsprint would flip us from a profit to a loss. Since the Cullens aren’t the Musks, we had to figure out what to do. We didn’t want to lay people off. A subscription price increase of more than 50% seemed excessive. We decided that the best solution would be to combine two issues a week into one and keep the price affordable.

You see, Canada doesn’t pay American newsprint tariffs, or any other tariffs. Customers like the Times Pilot — and ultimately you, our readers — pay the tariffs on newsprint, avocados, cars and everything else that’s imported.

After world markets crashed Monday, Trump said he would delay imposing tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days, but would hit China with a 10% tariff on everything sent to the United States.

So we have engaged in a trade war with our three biggest customers: Canada, Mexico and China.

This newspaper isn’t the only Iowa business caught in the crossfire. Every Iowa farmer is too. Mexico is Iowa’s biggest agricultural customer, buying about $30 billion of our products every year. China has also been a huge Iowa customer. So with planting time approaching, farmers must wonder what will be the impact on their sales if Mexico and China quit buying from us and turn to other countries for their food. The USA also is the largest importer of oil from Canada and Mexico, used primarily to make diesel. That would mean higher costs for farmers to fuel tractors, combines and trucks.

When Trump got into a snit with China in 2018 and cut off trade during his first term as president, farmers received $23 billion to offset lost sales to what was then our biggest ag customer.

But with Trump’s hatchet man Elon Musk determined to slash all government payouts, it seems unlikely that subsidies will rescue our farmers this time around.

Donald Trump won the presidency, and to the victors go the spoils, but it seems as though all his actions — raise tariffs, slash spending, eliminate departments, trash the FBI and CIA, take over Canada, Greenland, Panama, Gaza — in just two weeks are rushed and ill-conceived.

I hope all these tariffs don’t cause a recession. It would be helpful if Congress would step in and provide some adult supervision.

Right.