Trump’s ‘Manufacturing Renaissance’ Is Even Harder With Tariffs

US President Donald Trump says his tariffs will spark a “manufacturing renaissance.” But the duties themselves are making that already monumental task even more challenging.

In order to build and expand factories, companies need machinery and raw materials — many of which are typically imported and now subject to a variety of punitive tariffs. That compounds a host of pre-existing obstacles to realizing Trump’s vow to re-industrialize America, which has lost 6.8 million manufacturing jobs since 1979 as production has moved to cheaper countries and automation has increased.

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