Tariffs on Mexico will be bad for American business. Period. How do we know that? Because other tariffs are already hurting American companies.
Whirlpool(WHR) bet wrong. Separate tariffs on steel and aluminum caused Whirlpool’s production costs to soar. Americans scoffed at higher washing machine prices. People who didn’t urgently need new washing machines stuck with their old ones or went to the laundromat. Whirlpool sales fell last year and the company reported its first annual loss in 17 years. The company’s stock is down 37% since the tariffs were announced.
Then there are the steel tariffs announced in March 2018. They were designed to help US Steel and Nucor, which had been losing business to Chinese steel companies for decades. The 15% import tariff led the American steelmakers to ramp up production and add 9,000 jobs.
US Steel and Nucor started making more steel — way too much.
