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Last month, dairy farmer Nicholas Gilbert received a delivery of grain for the 1,400 cows he tends at his dairy farm in Potsdam, New York, 20 miles from the Ontario border. The feed came with a surprise tariff of $2,200 tacked on.
“Gilbert cannot increase the price of the milk he sells, which is set by the local co-op,” Annie Lowrey writes. “He cannot feed his cows less food. He cannot buy feed from another supplier; there aren’t any nearby, and getting it from farther away would be more expensive. When he got the delivery, he stared at the tariff for a while. Shouldn’t his Canadian supplier have been responsible for paying it? ‘I’m not even sure it’s legal! We contracted for the price on delivery! If your price of fuel goes up or your truck breaks down, that’s not my problem! That’s what the contract’s for.’”
Gilbert “is one of tens of thousands of American business owners caught in a spiraling trade war,” Lowrey continues. And he “lives in one area of the United States that might already be tipping into a recession because of it. Businesses near the Canadian border are particularly vulnerable to the rising costs and falling revenue caused by tariffs, and are delaying projects, holding off on hiring, raising prices, letting workers go, or wondering how they are going to keep feeding their cows as a result.”
Trump’s tariffs “are capricious, haphazard, and weird,” Lowrey writes. They take into account only trade in goods, not services. They apply to nations that have long-standing free-trade agreements with Washington; countries that have trade surpluses with the U.S.; and unpopulated islands. “The nonsensical policy will nevertheless have real effects … Thousands of American firms, mostly small businesses, will go under. The United States risks collapsing into an astonishing voluntary recession, caused solely by a few powerful ideologues’ erroneous beliefs about trade.”
“If you want to understand where the American economy is heading,” Lowrey continues at the link in our bio, “head to the border.”
(From the Atlantic Magazine this morning)---written by Annie Lowrey
“Gilbert cannot increase the price of the milk he sells, which is set by the local co-op,” Annie Lowrey writes. “He cannot feed his cows less food. He cannot buy feed from another supplier; there aren’t any nearby, and getting it from farther away would be more expensive. When he got the delivery, he stared at the tariff for a while. Shouldn’t his Canadian supplier have been responsible for paying it? ‘I’m not even sure it’s legal! We contracted for the price on delivery! If your price of fuel goes up or your truck breaks down, that’s not my problem! That’s what the contract’s for.’”
Gilbert “is one of tens of thousands of American business owners caught in a spiraling trade war,” Lowrey continues. And he “lives in one area of the United States that might already be tipping into a recession because of it. Businesses near the Canadian border are particularly vulnerable to the rising costs and falling revenue caused by tariffs, and are delaying projects, holding off on hiring, raising prices, letting workers go, or wondering how they are going to keep feeding their cows as a result.”
Trump’s tariffs “are capricious, haphazard, and weird,” Lowrey writes. They take into account only trade in goods, not services. They apply to nations that have long-standing free-trade agreements with Washington; countries that have trade surpluses with the U.S.; and unpopulated islands. “The nonsensical policy will nevertheless have real effects … Thousands of American firms, mostly small businesses, will go under. The United States risks collapsing into an astonishing voluntary recession, caused solely by a few powerful ideologues’ erroneous beliefs about trade.”
“If you want to understand where the American economy is heading,” Lowrey continues at the link in our bio, “head to the border.”
(From the Atlantic Magazine this morning)---written by Annie Lowrey
