Tariffs on imported steel and aluminum imposed by President Donald Trump may play well with producers in Midwest states that helped lift him to the White House, but manufacturing costs could rise in Connecticut, complicating business for the state’s hundreds of small, sometimes family-owned, machine shops and defense and aerospace contractors.
Jason Jarvis, president of Jarvis Airfoil Inc., a Portland manufacturer of fan, compressor and turbine blades and vanes for military and commercial jet engines, compared Trump’s tariffs with pre-Civil War protectionism.
“Tariffs like the ones the president has proposed are only going to drive up costs, stifling growth and discouraging growth,” he said.
Tariffs would require Jarvis to absorb higher costs for aluminum he buys from the United Kingdom, forcing him to delay hiring or making new investments, he said.
