(NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Maine businesses are on the edge of their seats, caught in the crossfire of a Trump Administration trade war.
Hussey Seating Company, located in North Berwick, make the seats and bleachers in high schools to stadiums since 1835. If you have been to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, you have seen its seats. A large portion of the products are made from steel.
“As a business in Maine dealing with heavy products, we have to look to our closest partners to find products," said Brian Deveaux, the Chief Financial Officer at Hussey Seating Company. "Sometimes that has us purchasing steel products from Canada, which are now subject to a 25% tariff."
Deveaux says 50% to 55% of orders are on backlog, some planned even a year out. “With prices locked in on those contracts, but our supply prices going up, we really don’t have the ability to go back and recoup the additional costs we are now incurring."
The proposed 10% duty from Canada and a 25% tax from the E.U. will impact domestic boat building. It directly affects Maine-made Sabre and Back Cove Yachts.
“Under normal circumstances our market in Canada would represent as many as six to ten boat builders," said Bentley Collins, the V.P. of Marketing and Sales at Sabre and Back Cove Yachts. "Under normal circumstances, if the market were weaker here, we would lose six to ten employees.”
The part of the boat that connects the transmission to the propeller, called the shafting, is made of stainless steel and it measures 2.25 inches thick and 12-feet long.
“We actually had to pre-purchase our shafting work requirements at Back Cove for the next six months to just avoid that expense," said Collins. "Our aluminum supplier called us the last week and asked us for a 35% increase on the products we buy from them, and that’s not just duty, it’s just availability.”
Costs for both companies, may eventually trickle down to consumers. Hussey Seating is looking for changes from the Trump Administration on the decisions that have been implemented, but they agree on fair trade. Collins is not worried about the tariffs and believes they will be gone as quickly as they came. "Having seen little trade wars like this before, it won’t last. The governments will negotiate something.”
The Canadian Government may make an announcement Thursday to remove motor boats from the tariff list.