In Our View: Local businesses, residents paying for trade war

Economic policy can often seem distant, full of theories that might or might not have an effect on our day-to-day reality. But several recent reports highlight how President Donald Trump’s trade war with China is impacting local businesses and consumers.

Take Vancouver-based laser manufacturer nLIGHT, for example. Last week, CEO Scott Keeney announced that revenue for the second quarter of 2019 had declined 7.1 percent from the second quarter of the previous year. “These market headwinds have persisted far beyond what we expected entering 2019,” Keeney told investors, in part blaming Trump’s escalating trade war with what had been the United States’ largest trading partner.

Or take Vancouver-based United Grain Corporation, which recently celebrated its 50th year of operation. The company operates the largest grain elevator on the West Coast at its Port of Vancouver facility, and it is being hampered by retaliatory tariffs that have hit agriculture exports from the United States to China. “The financial impact is already felt today,” CEO Augusto Bassanini said. He added: “We don’t have the luxury to just turn off the lights for a few months while this gets resolved. That would be the end of the company.”

Or take Talents Construction, which is the primary contractor for the six-story Hurley Building going up in downtown Vancouver. Trump triggered his trade war by adding tariffs on steel and aluminum, and Talents co-owner Russ Klennert said: “When it comes to anything steel or aluminum, where we got a lot of product from China, those raw goods went up across the board.” The Columbian recently reported: “The most major impact to the Hurley Building has been increased costs of lighting, as lighting fixtures are very commonly made in China. Lighting costs for the Hurley Building went up by about 10 percent because of the trade war.”

Or take Vancouver Bolt & Supply. General manager Brian Hyland said: “A lot of what we see is import, and that has raised prices, but it’s raised everyone’s prices.”

Yes, the nuts and bolts of the trade war is that it is raising everyone’s prices, and that gets passed along to consumers. According to business coalition Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, U.S. importers paid an extra $3.4 billion in June alone because of Trump’s tariff increases. When, for example, construction companies see their costs increase, that gets passed along to developers and, eventually, tenants.

And that does not include the impact upon U.S. exporters, who see their foreign markets diminished because tariffs in other countries increase prices on their products. Those increases have negatively impacted Washington, the nation’s most-trade dependent state and one that relies heavily on agricultural exports. Trump has claimed that China is paying for his tariff war; in truth, you are.

In spite of all this, the president recently announced plans to add a 10 percent tariff on an additional $300 billion worth of Chinese goods, beginning Sept. 1. You will pay for that, too.

Meanwhile, Congress has been reluctant to enforce the power granted it in Article I of the U.S. Constitution to “lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises.” Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, has said little about the subject other than action is necessary to halt China’s theft of intellectual property, joining her congressional brethren in acquiescing to the president.

The damage of that hands-off approach continues to mount, making it clear that Congress must put an end to President Trump’s misbegotten trade war.