Input Stories

Economic uncertainty is causing manufacturers to press pause on plans for growth (Bloomberg, subscription).

What’s going on: “Uncertainty around how and when Congress will enact tax legislation, on top of Trump’s ever-changing tariff announcements, is dragging down expectations for investment, surveys from across the country show.”

• Austin Ramirez, NAM Small and Medium Manufacturers Group vice chair and president and CEO of Wisconsin hydraulic and electromechanical component maker Husco, is among the manufacturers dialing back slated company expansions.
• “Everybody’s seen the clear and present danger of new tariffs and trade barriers,” Ramirez told the news service. “The key to having a thriving U.S. economy is having U.S. companies that are investing and becoming more productive. And when we can’t do that because we’re uncertain about the tax or trade environment, I think it becomes a real drag on the U.S. economy over time.”
• Ramirez, who has worked with the NAM to urge Congress to extend the 2017 tax cuts, said he still expects to see tax relief from the Trump administration and Congress but now isn’t sure when.

New equipment—or not? Courtney Silver, NAM Executive Committee member
and president and owner of North Carolina–based family precision machining business Ketchie, said “her plans to spend more than $1 million on equipment are on hold until it’s clear what tax measures will be enacted—especially around an expiring provision allowing businesses to fully expense most equipment purchases, called bonus depreciation.”

• Silver called the uncertainty around the tax provision’s extension “a roadblock to investment in innovation.”

The NAM says: Several new tariffs will go into effect in the coming months, which will raise costs for businesses, Bloomberg reports. To mitigate the effects on manufacturers, “Congress and the administration [need] to act on the tax provisions and deregulation, according to Jay Timmons, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Manufacturers.”

• “If you’re going to use that tool in the toolkit—and the president certainly has the right to do that—what are we doing in other areas to lower the cost of doing business in the United States?” Timmons told Bloomberg recently.