The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce joined Delaware River ports in expressing its disappointment and concern with the Trump Administration’s intention to impose new tariffs on steel imports.
President Trump signed proclamations authorizing the tariffs for aluminum and steel, with flexibility for Mexico and Canada.
Trading partners are expected to retaliate with tariffs on America products such as
Chamber Acting President, Bob Chadwick stated, “Under the leadership of the Maritime Exchange for the Delaware River and Bay, the port community is sending up a red flag on these tariffs and this Chamber agrees that imposing such tariffs would be an impediment to regional economic growth.”
In a recently released statement, Maritime Exchange President, Dennis Rochford, stated: , “As measured by 231 vessel arrivals in 2017, which carried up to four million tons of steel cargo, shipments of this commodity are currently the fourth largest import cargo arriving at the Port of Wilmington and ports in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Ship agents, brokers, pilots, tugboat operators, warehouses, truckers, dockworkers and others involved in the transportation chain will all experience an equally adverse impact if these proposed restrictions are implemented.”
“Beyond just our local and regional concerns,” said Chadwick, “we should all be very worried about the retaliatory trade actions that will ultimately be levied against us and the far reaching impacts such actions could have on our national economy. The last time we did this it was a disaster and the basic steel sector lost 200,000 jobs.”
Richard Heffron, president of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce, said the group had not taken a formal position, but noted that it generally supports the positions of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which opposes the tariffs.
The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce represents more than 1,100 member businesses across northern Delaware, Cecil County and southeastern Pennsylvania.
