President Donald Trump’s tariff policies are posing a threat to the revival of US manufacturing.
By TILLY ARMSTRONG DEPUTY CONSUMER EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
A push for a ‘Made in America’ renaissance has been a key priority for the White House, with particular focus on the American Rust Belt.
But companies are warning how turmoil and confusion around Trump’s trade wars is slowing the progress made in reinvigorating American factories.
The latest jobs report revealed that manufacturing jobs declined by 8,000 last month – the most this year so far.
Anxiety is high in the Midwest, which remains home to the largest concentration of US manufacturing jobs — despite losing tens of thousands of workers to offshoring in the early 2000s.
‘Overall, it is going to be a drag on the US economy,’ Gus Faucher, chief economist for PNC Financial Services Group in Pittsburgh, told Bloomberg.
‘In particular, it’s going to be a drag on the Midwestern economy.’
US factory activity also contracted in May for the third month in a row.