GOP Tariffs Will Hurt Wisconsin Families, Farmers & Manufacturers

MADISON, Wis. — The new Republican blanket tariff plan is a massive tax hike on Wisconsin families, farmers and manufacturers. From raising the cost of fuel and electricity, to hiking the prices folks pay at the grocery store for fruits and vegetables, Wisconsinites will pay the price for reckless Republican tariffs.

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Communications Director Joe Oslund issued the following statement:

“Make no mistake: Wisconsin families, farmers and manufacturers are going to be forced to pick up the check for blanket, across-the-board tariffs imposed by Donald Trump and his Republican allies. From closing off export markets for our farmers, to making the cost of the raw materials our manufacturers depend on more expensive, these tariffs are going to hurt Wisconsin’s economy and leave working families behind. The price of food and gas is going to go up—and Republican politicians like Derrick Van Orden, Bryan Steil, Tom Tiffany are going to have to answer for it.”

Republican tariffs will cost Wisconsin families an extra $1,000 a year.

Ernie Tedeschi, The Budget Lab: “A broad 25% tariff on all goods imports from Canada and Mexico would, before substitution & other 2nd stage effects, put upward pressure on the level of consumer prices of +0.6%. That’s the equivalent of an average loss in after-tax income of about $980 per household in 2023.”

Canada is Wisconsin’s single biggest trading partner, with more than $8.5 billion in goods exported from Wisconsin to Canada in 2023, with manufacturing “particularly reliant” on cross-border trade.

WEDC: “With total trade of $11.0 billion through September 2024 (representing a trade surplus of $1.6 billion), Canada continues to be Wisconsin’s top trading partner, reflecting highly integrated supply chains within the manufacturing sector as well as strong bilateral trade in machinery, plastics, and paper products, to name a few.”

Wisconsin Public Radio: “Scott Niederjohn, the report’s author and an economics professor at Concordia University, said Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector is ‘particularly reliant’ on trade with Mexico and Canada, making it ‘very susceptible to the tariffs, especially ones in North America.’ Niederjohn said Trump’s tariff proposal could force countries to impose retaliatory tariffs, making it harder for Wisconsin to export to those nations.”

Republican tariff plans will devastate Wisconsin’s dairy industry.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Now, a combination of tariffs, farm worker deportations and other reasons could trigger a $6 billion loss in profits for U.S. dairy farmers over the next four years, said Charles Nicholson, a dairy economist with Cornell University in Utica, New York. A generous share of Wisconsin milk ends up in dairy products outside the United States. ‘If you pick a trade fight with our major export destinations — Mexico, Canada and China — and they decide to retaliate, that has some substantive negative implications for dairy farms and processors,’ Nicholson said.”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.