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The Trump tariffs hit this week.
The across the board taxes on imports into the U.S.
are combined with reciprocal tariffs
hiking the tax on countries with larger trade imbalances
holding steady with the 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico
on steel and aluminum and on cars.
For other countries, the 10% baseline tariffs on all goods
imported into the U.S. will see higher reciprocal rates
like the 20% tariffs on imports from the European Union.
Governor Tony Evers and CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation
Missy Hughes are just now on a trade mission to France and Germany.
Is this good timing or bad?
We turn to Secretary Missy Hughes, who's in France.
And thanks very much for joining us from there.
Yeah, good afternoon from France.
So, Secretary Hughes, what has been the reaction where you are
to these U.S. tariffs?
Well, we've really seen generally a lot of disappointment
from the French officials and the German officials
and the businesses that we've been meeting with.
It's real surprise over what's happened.
You know, everyone has expressed to me
we have had incredible long-term friendships
and really a lot of confusion and misunderstanding
or confusion about what's happening and what the future holds.
So, as to retaliatory tariffs being considered by other countries,
what will that mean for U.S. exports, particularly for Wisconsin?
Well, for Wisconsin, we're going to see challenges around
especially our industrial machinery, our large pieces of machines
and equipment that we are building and exporting to countries
like Germany for use for food processing and the medical industry.
So, we're really going to face real challenges for our businesses.
And we have businesses every day that, like,
businesses we've brought here to Germany that are exploring exporting,
and this is really going to be a challenge for them as they seek new markets.
So, your trade mission is to promote exports, of course,
and international investments, and especially,
I understand Wisconsin's bio-health sector.
For its part, I understand that France is talking about targeting U.S.,
the U.S. tech sector.
What do you say to your counterparts in Europe in the face of this?
Well, first and foremost, you know, things are changing every day.
So, before we even get into conversations about tariffs,
we're talking about our long-term partnerships.
We're talking about how Wisconsin is here ready to continue these relationships.
But when we're talking about retaliatory tariffs or the tariffs that the U.S. is putting on these countries,
it's really concerned about sending the economy into a recession.
And there's a fear that even if the tariffs are alleviated,
the chilling effect that this is going to have on the economy
and the potential recession is really causing concerns for future investment.
So, we are seeing the stock market sinking.
Certainly, consumer confidence is unsteady.
You speak about recession for Wisconsin, for the U.S., for the globe.
Yeah, you know, I mean, if you think about the impacts of the tariffs,
a company that might be making an investment,
a company that might be hiring people is going to stop and say,
well, let's wait and see what happened.
And that has a domino effect, then really creating a slowdown
and really creating a recession.
I have companies that are talking to me from Wisconsin
who are very concerned about what the future holds.
They have relied on open trade between Mexico and Canada.
They've created supply chains in that way,
and now they're really worried about what's going to be the future,
and this unpredictability and instability is really hard for businesses to plan around.
As to the tariffs on Mexico and Canada,
what is the current and potential future impact on Wisconsin?
Well, I think first and foremost,
we're going to see impacts on everyday Wisconsinites' pocketbooks.
We're going to see increases in grocery costs.
We're going to see increases in gas and prices,
and that's really going to be happening in an effect right away.
Longer term, we'll see companies really thinking about
how do they re-jigger their supply chains and can they do that?
Because they've relied on buying from Mexico or buying from Canada
and even sending parts back and forth across the borders,
and now they're going to have to make decisions
about how to continue to make that work
or to move into new or more difficult types of business.
So overall, should we expect higher prices on just about everything?
It's hard to imagine that this isn't going to have an impact
through and through and through.
Even a company I was talking to that imports coffee
is facing incredible tariffs.
And so we can expect just at the beginning of our day
with coffee to have higher costs,
and we might see increased costs in health care
because we'll see medical devices and perhaps drugs costing more.
So I think everywhere we're going to see real challenges
to what we expect and how we pay our bills.
What can someone like you and your position do about any of this?
Well, first and foremost, we want to provide really good information
to our companies.
As you've pointed out, the tariffs are complex,
whether they're reciprocal or coming into the country,
we want to make sure they have the best information about that.
And then as they explore ways to mitigate risks
or ways to move their supply chain around,
we want to be there with the best information
to be able to supply them and help them react
in the most successful way.
Secretary Missy Hughes, joining us from France, thanks so much.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Yes.
So you obviously planned this trip well ahead of the announcement
of these tariffs, but new presumably that this would be
kind of weird ground to tread in this mission.
Yeah.
This has been in the works for quite a few months,
but certainly as we see this developing January
and perhaps even before, we had a line of sight to it
and we were thinking about it.
But it was really important that we still come.
We've had a really incredible reception from folks who are just so happy
to be able to have a personal conversation
and know that they're still friends that they can call on
and talk with.
Great.
All right.
Well, thank you so much and have a good rest of your mission.
Thank you.
Thank you so much for reaching out.
All right.
Take care.
Bye.
Thank you.
A holder of camera.
Amazing.
You did a great job.