With an escalation in President Trump's trade war possible as early as
Thursday, retaliatory tariffs threaten U.S. companies employing some 11
million workers, according to an Axios analysis.
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Axios Visuals
Editor Lazaro Gamio reports: The map above tracks the
geographical impact of both current and threatened retaliation. The darker
a county, the higher the concentration of affected industries.
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We found that affected
industries are mostly concentrated in rural, deeply red,
already-struggling parts of the country, with political consequences for
Trump and Republicans in 2018 and beyond.
Driving the news:
On Thursday, a public comment period ends on Trump's threat to quadruple
tariffs on China, slapping them on $200 billion in Chinese goods, up from
$50 billion in force today. If Trump proceeds this week or later, as experts
expect him to, China has said it will retaliate with tariffs
on $60 billion in U.S. exports.
That's on top of 25% and 10% tariffs enacted, respectively, on steel and
aluminum imports from Canada, China, Mexico and the European Union, and by
those countries against the U.S.
Against these
impacts, the Trump administration has already provided a $4.7
billion bailoutto soybean farmers, hit with retaliatory tariffs by
China, their biggest customer, a move criticized
by Republicans.
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Employment in rural
and low-population counties can be exceptionally vulnerable to gyrations
in the global economy, said Mark Muro, a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution.
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"In a small
county, a single meat packing establishment can provide hundreds
of jobs and make up a large share of that county's total employment," he
told Axios. A prior
report by Muro and others at Brookings inspired this analysis.
