‘We just can’t take the hit’: businesses worldwide brace as Trump threatens tariffs
‘We just can’t take the hit’: businesses worldwide brace as Trump threatens tariffs
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Across the world, exporters to the US are preparing for an era of disruption if tariffs are imposed. Donald Trump, a self-declared “big believer” in tariffs on foreign goods, has promised to use them to boost the US economy, revitalize America’s industrial heartlands, and reward the tens of millions of voters who sent him back to the White House.
![[aluminum bars]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/23d8aa29640059dfd4a4c9868d84e18fd174f48a/0_0_3500_2336/master/3500.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
“Come make your product in America,” the president told top executives gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, promising low taxes to those who take him up on the invitation. “But if you don’t make your product in America – which is your prerogative – then, very simply, you will have to pay a tariff.”.
![[an aerial view of an industrial building]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/e6c2baa3021b87632d5ad5430269c8567a8c8216/0_140_4032_2420/master/4032.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
While Trump has repeatedly asserted that ‘tariffs’ is “the most beautiful word” in the dictionary, economists and US importers have warned that the consequences of his plan – if it’s enforced – will be ugly. With the new administration threatening to impose sweeping new tariffs as soon as next month, exporters around the world are bracing for an era of disruption and uncertainty.
![[a tailored suit in progress]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/711a1fc713afc1ad705d1f50e3083dbca58bc8c7/0_0_5616_3744/master/5616.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Philip Wen. Kam Pin Industrial was more or less able to shrug off the wave of tariffs it faced during Trump’s first administration. The building products company makes industrial coatings and metal sheets in Dongguan, the southern Chinese industrial hub sometimes referred to as the “factory of the world” for its role in the manufacturing boom unleashed when China opened its economy to the world in the late 1980s and 1990s.
![[A worker uses a log grapple to collect logs]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3273af07e667a9d8bab5f41899c7d50f74bf25ee/0_0_5651_3782/master/5651.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
