Political Quotes

“Prior to being here, I worked in the manufacturing sector. I worked in metal stamping. One of the challenges, as Mr. Hill highlighted, is the tariffs are only on the commodity. Frankly, they are blunt force. They are all steel, all aluminum. The reality is some grades of steel, some grades of aluminum are commodity. Beverage cans, for example, are a commodity. We make it in the U.S.; they make it in Canada. Everywhere they consume lots of beverages, there is a significant ability to produce this grade of aluminum. So the idea that we would target that isn't necessarily changing our market, but where it is, there are things like the grades of rod that your tire manufacturers are or a similar rod for welding wire. Welding wire is highly automated. So we have got domestic welding wire manufacturers who already weren't the lowest cost provider. China, India, South Korea all heavily subsidize their welding wire manufacturers. Having domestic welding wire manufacturers probably is a national security issue. We want the base rod to be made in the U.S. Some of those grades aren't. But soon, if we don't get exclusions to our domestic welding wire manufacturers, we won't have the manufacturer of welding wire either. Meanwhile, their cost for the steel has gone up by 25 percent or more because of the tariffs and they are losing market share. They don't have a year or 2 to wait for the exclusions review. They are losing business now.…”