Nashville, Tenn. – Drew Greenblatt is completely on board with the The use of Trump administration fees To rebalance a global commercial system that says that it favors foreign companies about US manufacturers.
Greenblatt is the president and owner of Marlin Steel Wire Products in Baltimore, Maryland, which manufactures baskets and racks for manufacturers of medical devices, aerospace companies, food processing companies and others. It has 115 employees and manufactures its products in three locations in Maryland, Indiana and Michigan. The steel comes from Tennessee, Illinois and Michigan.
Currently, it is difficult to compete with baskets made abroad, “says Greenblatt, because countries against which they compete have an” unfair advantage. ” For example, due to European tariffs and taxes, it costs much more for a German consumer or company to buy Marlin wire baskets than for Americans to buy a German basket, creating an unequal playing field, Greenblatt said.
“It is very unfair to the American worker,” he said. “And this, by the way, has been happening for decades.”
The Trump administration has called us to manufacture a priority of “economic and national security.” American manufacturing has been declining for decades. In June 1979, the number of manufacturing workers reached its maximum point in 19.6 million. By January 2025, employment decreased by 35% to 12.8 million, according to the Office of Labor Statistics. Small manufacturers, which represent 99% of all American manufacturing, have been particularly impacted.
The administration has implemented some rates against the main business partners of the United States, while Control over other rates Pending negotiations. The Trump administration says that tariffs will force companies to have more products made in the US. UU. To avoid the strong increase in import prices, which will mean “better remunerated American jobs”, for people who manufacture cars, appliances and other goods.
Greenblatt agrees, saying that he could double his staff if the “parity” in tariffs becomes a reality.
While other small manufacturing companies also support tariffs, other owners have concerns. The triumph Tariffs threaten to dump the existing economic order and possibly push the global economy to the recession. And the unequal launch of politics has created uncertainty for companies, financial markets and American homes.
For Corry Blanc, the injection of uncertainty around the economy exceeds any potential benefit.
He began his business, Blanc Creativs in Waynesboro, Virginia, in 2012. He makes handmade kitchen utensils such as pans and other kitchen utensils and baking articles with American steel and wood and uses 12 employees. He obtains his steel from a plant in South Carolina and a distributor in Richmond. The wood comes from local regional sawmills near the company’s headquarters in Waynesboro, Virginia.
He said he has been receiving worried calls from customers in Canada and abroad. And he says that the infrastructure is not in his place to increase production if more people start buying products made by the United States.
Blanc said he survived the pandemic and other difficult times, but the conditions are now the most difficult they have been.
“There is so much uncertainty and not much direction,” he said.
Michael Lyons is the founder of Rogue Industries, a company that manufactures wallets and other leather items in a workshop in Standish, Maine, with a staff of nine. He uses Maine leather and the west medium. About 80% of their products are made in Maine and 20% are imported.
He said that uncertainty around tariffs is exceeding any long -term potential benefit. A Canadian customer for a long time told Lyons that he would no longer be buying in Rogue Industries due to friction between the two countries.
“Hopefully this happens, and he can return,” he said. “But I thought it was an interesting indicator for him to spread.”
Lyons would like to expand his business, but says: “At that time, we will probably be, we maintain what we have.”
The American Giant CEO, Bayard Winthrop, has a more positive vision. He founded his clothing company in 2011 after seeing the textile industry on the high seas and seeing a lack of quality and quality American quality clothes. He started selling a sweatshirt, and now he sells a broader range of clothing, mostly direct to the consumer, but also has a contract with Walmart.
He gets cotton from the Southeast states such as Georgia, Florida and North Carolina and has a factory in North Carolina and a joint association center in Los Angeles.
“People forget that in 1985 all the clothes that Americans bought were made in the United States,” he said. “It is only in the last 40 years that we really follow a very aggressive approach to globalization.”
In 1991, more than half of American clothes, approximately 56%, was held in the United States, according to statistics from the American apopy and footwear association. By 2023 that number had been reduced to less than 4%.
Winthrop expects tariffs to bring a return to more products made in the United States.
“The imbalances between our trade, particularly with China, particularly textiles, are simply shocking, to be honest with you,” he said, added that he hopes that Trump’s policies “put national manufacturers in a slightly more competitive position.”
Winthrop understands people’s concerns, but said it is important to think in the long term.
“Americans are concerned about tariffs, and I think there is a lot of justification for concern because I think the administration can be volatile and unpredictable,” he said. But he added that people should put that aside.
“The idea that we are going to be more protective in our domestic market and having an industrial policy that includes manufacturing work is an ancient idea. It is not a new idea,” he said.
