This is a very good column, and I believe everyone should read it. Bill Coomer is a very good businessman and knows what it takes to run a business in today’s climate. I fully support Bill’s thoughts.
Mike Stegall
I run a small American manufacturing company in Ohio. We’ve been at it since 1887, and in that time, we’ve learned what it actually takes to keep a factory open and workers employed in this country.
For over a century, Troy Sunshade has been making quality products based out of our Greenville, Ohio factory. We started by making “windshields of character” for carriages and became a manufacturing facility in both World Wars. Today, we manufacture 100% made in the USA, American flags, vinyl bank bags, fitness equipment pads and a pleather of custom sewn products for customers throughout the USA. We employ American workers, pay American taxes, and invest in our American community. That’s what American manufacturing looks like, and it’s under pressure in ways that don’t always make the headlines.
That’s why I’ve supported President Trump from the start and continue to support his America First trade policy. When he first came down the golden escalator in 2015, I knew he would be a game-changer for American manufacturers.
For decades, companies like mine were forced to compete against countries that played by completely different rules. Cheap labor, state subsidies, and unfair trade practices made it nearly impossible for small American manufacturers to compete against China. President Trump’s tariffs finally began leveling the playing field.
Here in Ohio, we’ve seen the positive effects firsthand.
Several companies have announced major investments and expansions, thanks in part to the “Made in America” push. Steel producers have benefited from the strong 50% tariffs on foreign steel. Appliance companies and the defense industry, who both use steel, have also reaped the benefits with factory expansions.
As someone who runs a small business, it’s encouraging to see that kind of momentum. It proves that tariffs can work when the goal is rebuilding American industry.
But more can be done to incentivize American manufacturing and reward companies that bring jobs and manufacturing home.
Small manufacturers like mine survive within a global supply chain, not because we want to, but because that’s the reality of modern manufacturing. At Troy Sunshade, we are a leading manufacturer of vinyl bank bags in the United States. We source components domestically whenever possible, but the reality is that the vinyl material needed for these products is currently only available from China at the scale and pricing modern manufacturing requires.
In many ways, that is also one of the greatest strengths of President Trump’s tariff policy.
For decades, China dominated industries like these through subsidies, scale, and unfair trade practices that made it nearly impossible for American manufacturers to compete. Tariffs finally begin creating the profit margin and market conditions necessary for American suppliers to potentially re-enter these industries and compete again. That is how domestic manufacturing capacity gets rebuilt.
But rebuilding industrial supply chains does not happen overnight.
Companies like mine that manufacture in America are facing the same paradox. We employ American workers, manufacture products here in Ohio, pay taxes here, and invest in our community, yet we can still end up at a cost disadvantage relative to Chinese competitors selling finished goods into the same market. While American manufacturers pay full freight on imported components needed to build products here at home, some Chinese firms benefit from state subsidies and other advantages that help offset their costs. That is the opposite of what America First trade policy was designed to accomplish.
Companies like ours are not the problem these tariffs were designed to solve. We are the constituency they were meant to protect.
None of this means tariffs are the wrong policy. Far from it, in fact. But it does mean current tariff policies should be nimble and adapt as needed, to continue helping American companies like ours. Smart enforcement means making sure the system doesn’t inadvertently punish the American companies it was built to defend.
Companies that have already taken steps to move supply chains out of China, often into North American manufacturing under USMCA, should not end up paying more than competitors who never left Beijing.
One idea worth considering is what some trade experts have called a “China Exit Incentive Program.” Under this approach, companies that can demonstrate a measurable, ongoing reduction in their dependence on Chinese manufacturing, whether by moving production to the United States or to North American partners under USMCA, would qualify for targeted, conditional tariff relief. Not a blanket exemption. A strategic reward for doing exactly what the President has asked American companies to do.
For companies like mine, that kind of policy would be the difference between
growing and closing.
President Trump has already done more for American manufacturers than any president in a generation. His focus on domestic manufacturing and fair trade has given companies like mine confidence that America is finally standing up for its workers and industrial base again.
Companies like Troy Sunshade are doing exactly what this trade policy was designed to encourage: manufacturing in America while reducing reliance on China wherever possible. Now we need policies that help American manufacturers finish that transition, including targeted tariff relief for companies actively moving supply chains out of China. That’s not a carve-out. That’s America First working exactly as intended.
