Steel Tariffs Would Damage Regional Economic Growth

The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce joins the Delaware River regional port community in expressing its disappointment and concern with the Trump Administration’s intention to impose new tariffs on steel imports.

According to Chamber Acting President, Bob Chadwick, “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, indicated that, “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.”

Chadwick went on to say, “Here at the Chamber, everything we do is centered on enhancing companies, jobs and paychecks for New Castle County, the State of Delaware, and the entire region. The President’s proposed tariffs will help none of those and will cost Delawareans and our friends in the surrounding region jobs.  So we oppose these tariffs and encourage others to do the same.”

The New Castle County Chamber of Commerce represents over 1,100 member businesses across northern Delaware, Cecil County Maryland, and Southeastern Pennsylvania.