ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
The prospect of tariffs in the new Trump administration is dividing businesses around the country. Some are scrambling to avoid the import taxes or preparing to pass the costs to their customers. Others are welcoming tariffs as a defense against foreign competition. Here's NPR's Scott Horsley.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: If you've ever sat in the bleachers to watch a high school football game, you might have Mark McClelland to thank. His company, Tower Extrusions, makes those bleachers, along with thousands of other aluminum products.
MARK MCCLELLAND: Think of a big Play-Doh machine. We take a log of aluminum and push it through a die in the shape of some form.
HORSLEY: Bleachers, window frames, car parts and more all come squeezing through McClelland's aluminum presses in Olney, Texas.
MCCLELLAND: It's kind of one of those old-line businesses that people don't really think about. But when you look around, our product's kind of everywhere.
HORSLEY: But when McClelland looks around these days, he sees more and more foreign competition. Cheap aluminum products from Vietnam, Turkey, Mexico and other countries have captured about 35% of the U.S. market - nearly twice the share they had five years ago.
MCCLELLAND: It's going to shut down our industry if we don't do something. We're down here in a little bitty town of 3,500 people, and we employ over 600 people. So it's kind of the life of the town. You just feel a huge responsibility to make this thing work.
HORSLEY: McClelland is counting on Trump's tariffs to raise the price of those imported aluminum goods and give him and other domestic manufacturers a fighting chance.
To companies in the import business, on the other hand, tariffs look very different. Bobby Djavaheri's Los Angeles-based company, Yedi Houseware Appliances, sells air fryers and waffle irons, mostly made in China. Djavaheri says, if Trump makes good on his threat to slap a 60% tax on Chinese imports, he'll be the one getting the bill.
BOBBY DJAVAHERI: These tariffs are being paid by us - not by the Chinese - by us.
HORSLEY: Djavaheri says that would raise the price of a $130 air fryer to $200 or more.
DJAVAHERI: I'm taking it very seriously. We're trying to ramp up our imports prior to president-elect getting sworn in, and then we'll go from there.
HORSLEY: Other importers are also racing to stockpile products before the tariffs kick in. But that doesn't work for everyone. Peter Elitzer runs a chain of discount clothing stores on the East Coast and the Midwest called Label Shopper. He worries that filling warehouses with extra inventory could leave him saddled with clothes that are out of fashion. So he just has to take his chances knowing that if tariffs do come, he'll have to raise prices.
PETER ELITZER: There's no question in my mind that this is going to be not good news for the consumer at all. Particularly if they're trying to get inflation under control, it's the worst possible time to do that.
HORSLEY: Elitzer says even a 10% tariff would be a drag on sales. The bargain hunters who shop at his stores are already skittish, buying clothes only when a change in the weather means they have to.
ELITZER: The overwhelming majority of Americans don't shop in the high-end department stores. They're shopping in Walmart, and they're shopping in the Label Shoppers of the world, and they're looking for value.
HORSLEY: Even Mark McClelland, the aluminum manufacturer who's rooting for tariffs, admits they can have a downside. The last time Trump was in the White House, he imposed tariffs on the raw aluminum McClelland uses to make bleachers and window frames. His company is still paying a price for that.
MCCLELLAND: It drove up our raw material costs by 10%. Whether we imported them or not, even if it was domestically produced, it just raises your cost 10%.
HORSLEY: While tariffs can offer a measure of protection for some industries, the import taxes ultimately drive up costs for everyone.
Scott Horsley, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
