Small manufacturers of US hope to benefit from tariffs

NASHVILLE, Tenn, Apr 20 (AP): Drew Greenblatt is fully on board with the Trump administration's use of tariffs to rebalance a global trading system that it says favors foreign companies over US manufacturers.
Greenblatt is the president and owner of Marlin Steel Wire Products in Baltimore, Maryland, which makes baskets and racks for medical device manufacturers, aerospace companies, food processing companies and others. It has 115 employees and makes its products in three locations in Maryland, Indiana and Michigan. The steel is sourced from Tennessee, Illinois and Michigan.
Currently, it's hard to compete with baskets made overseas., Greenblatt says, because the countries he competes against have an "unfair advantage." For example, due to European tariffs and taxes, it costs much more for a German consumer or company to buy Marlin wire baskets than it does for Americans to buy a German-made basket, creating an uneven playing field, Greenblatt said.
"It's wildly unfair to the American worker," he said. "And this has, by the way, been going on for decades."
The Trump administration has called US manufacturing an "economic and national security" priority. US manufacturing has been declining for decades. In June 1979, the number of manufacturing workers peaked at 19.6 million. By January of 2025, employment was down 35 per cent to 12.8 million, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Small manufacturers, which make up 99 per cent of all American manufacturing, have been hit particularly hard.
The administration has implemented some tariffs against major US trading partners, while putting a hold on other tariffs pending negotiations. The Trump administration says tariffs will force companies to have more products made in the US to avoid steep price increases on their imports, which will mean "better-paying American jobs," for people making cars, appliances and other goods.