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My Economy: The personal cost of a year of tariffs

Mar 19, 2019
For Sam Desai, vice president at RM Metals, a year of tariffs on his balance sheet changed his work habits.
Tom Mihalek/Getty Images

U.S.-imposed tariffs are hitting American firms’ bottom line

Sep 27, 2018
The CEO of one of the nation’s largest automakers says metal tariffs imposed by the Trump administration earlier this year have cost his company $1 billion in profits and sales. Ford boss Jim Hackett made the comment at a gathering of business leaders in New York on Wednesday. The administration imposed the steel and aluminum […]
Jim Hackett, president and chief executive officer, Ford Motor stands outside the headquarters as they celebrate the production of the 10,000,000 Mustang on August 8, 2018 in Dearborn, Michigan.
JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP/Getty Images

Canada's Aluminum Valley grapples with U.S. tariffs

Sep 17, 2018
A 50-mile stretch along the Saguenay River in Quebec produces roughly half of Canada's aluminum; residents are anxious.
Rio Tinto ships raw material and finished ingots in and out of its own port facility on the bay of the Saguenay River, which flows out to the Saint Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean.
Emma Jacobs/Marketplace

Tariff jitters grow at Washington state port

Sep 12, 2018
The port of Vancouver handles the West Coast's second-largest volume of imported steel, now subject to a 25 percent duty.
ILWU Local 4 President Cager Clabaugh says the tariffs are already hurting work at the port. An order for 6,000 tons of copper ore on route to China was recently canceled. The mountains of copper now sit unused in a warehouse at the Port of Vancouver.
Molly Solomon/OPB

Steel workers press steelmakers on wages and health care costs, with a strike authorization vote

Sep 11, 2018
The vote comes as U.S. Steel and ArcelorMittal are in union contract negotiations.
Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Japan trade officials and companies take a nuanced approach to U.S. tariffs

Sep 4, 2018
The Trump administration’s 25 percent tariff on imported steel has triggered retaliation from U.S. trading partners such as Canada, the European Union, and China. But over the past few months, Japan, which has also been a target of U.S. tariffs, and which runs a $69 billion trade surplus with the U.S. (the third-largest trade imbalance […]

As Turkey’s currency tumbles, contagion fears rise

Aug 10, 2018
Turkey’s currency, the lira, is in free fall. It’s been declining for months and today it reached a record low, down by as much as 18 percent. Part of the reason is Turkey’s bad relations with the United States. The two countries have been at odds lately over the detention of an American pastor. And […]
Turkish Lira currency is seen on November 21, 2017 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Chris McGrath/Getty Images

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Americans do want tariff relief

Aug 3, 2018
Manufacturers and farmers we talked to are frustrated by the import taxes and the exemption process.
A worker is surrounded by sparks from molten steel flowing into casts at the TAMCO steel mini mill in Rancho Cucamonga, California, in 2002.
David McNew/Getty Images

Postcard from a Japanese steel town

Aug 1, 2018
The city of Kamaishi is the birthplace of the modern Japanese steel industry, but that hasn't shielded it from change.
The Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal plant in Kamaishi, Japan.
Adrian Ma/Marketplace

Alcoa earnings will give a glimpse of the aluminum industry now that tariffs are in play

Jul 17, 2018
On Wednesday, we get second-quarter earnings from Alcoa, the major aluminum manufacturer. And that may offer clues about how the escalating trade battle is playing out for domestic manufacturers and workers now that tariffs on aluminum and steel are a reality. The United States is now charging 10 percent tariffs on imported aluminum from Canada, […]