Donald Trump’s “big stick” the past few months has been the trade tariffs on China. Those “economically anxious” Trump supporters are getting the full con man treatment, as they serve to bear the brunt of the tariffs and their consequences. Consumer goods have begun to skyrocket, manufacturing unions have warned their members that these trades could mean the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and Republicans have been working to give farmers welfare checks that will delude them into thinking everything is going just fine.
But while all of that happens, manufacturers like Stack-On Products, a storage safe manufacturer, begin to close up shop and head on down to Mexico.
“The operation is really not profitable,” Fletcher said. He said the decision to relocate operations to Juarez, Mexico, was made about two months ago when President Donald Trump announced tariffs on numerous goods and materials from China as well as other countries, to reduce what the president has called an unfair trade deficit.
“Mr. Trump is part of this,” Fletcher said. So far, the United States has imposed tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese technology goods and $3 billion of Chinese steel and aluminum, and has proposed another $16 billion.
The Chicago Tribune says that about 153 people will be laid off in the Chicago area as a result of Stack-On’s closures. But wait, there’s more! There are at least “885 coming job cuts that Illinois employers reported last month to the state’s Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.” Those numbers come from an act that forces businesses planning on laying off more than 75 workers to give 60 days notice.