It seems like months ago, though it was just a mere few weeks ago, that President Trump alarmed much of the industrialized world with his move to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. ASA heard from many that believed this would harm their business in a big way.
What we didn’t hear was from those that supported these actions.
While ASA joined with a wide swath of collective stakeholders expressing our concerns over the tariffs, we wanted to know more of what our membership felt. What we learned was that while this may raise costs, it also is beneficial to increase the demand and capabilities of our domestic manufacturing base.
After surveying our membership, there was no strong tilt toward support or opposition, no consensus on whether this would be bad or good. In fact according to wholesalers surveyed, 43% support the tariffs, 42% do not support the tariffs and 15% were uncommitted, while almost 100% of manufacturers polled did not support the tariffs.