The tariffs of the trade war hit Albany, the northern ports of the state

Albany

The Port of Albany workers have carefully lowered this month six retractable subway cars that will eventually carry commuters into the Boston metropolitan area. Sent from China with a freighter, these cars are now squarely in the sights of a growing trade war that these pilots could pay.

Tariffs ordered by President Donald Trump this summer now apply to wagons and hundreds of others expected to pass through Albany in the coming years, as part of a massive contract between a Chinese railway company and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

The question of whether these tariffs derail imports remains uncertain. This summer, tariffs on Chinese imports of Chinese-made machinery for power plant projects in New York and Pennsylvania have also increased, said Bill Ring, chief executive officer of Federal Marine Terminals, which operates the Port of Beijing. # 39; Albany.

"The orders for these (subway) cars are in three years and that will not stop the business, but the rates will have an impact," Ring said. And since power plant projects are already underway, with another set for the Great Lakes region, contracts are in place and "orders will have to be met," he added.

Country trade data, compiled by the Associated Press and analyzed by the Times Union, showed that nearly half of the $ 97 million in machinery imports in 2017 would have been impacted by Chinese tariffs. For the first half of this year, approximately $ 8 million out of a total of $ 46.7 million in machinery imports would have been billed.

Tariffs are a kind of tax imposed on imports. In July, President Trump imposed tariffs of $ 50 billion on products made in China and threatened to impose tariffs on an additional $ 200 billion in imports from that country.

Current tariffs could represent up to 25% of the cost of hulls of Chinese-made cars and imported components used to assemble them at a new $ 95 million plant in Springfield, Massachusetts, built by the Chinese manufacturer CRCC.

After being shipped to Albany, the shells will be sent to Springfield for completion. Each finished car is valued at around $ 2.4 million, according to Masslive.com reports. If the fare applied to all of this, the cost of each car could increase by $ 600,000.

Boston's transit system could support these potential price increases, said Lydia Rivera, spokesperson for CRRC MA, owner of the Springfield plant. Currently, the company is preparing to seek waivers from the US Trade Representative to lift customs duties on car hulls and over a hundred different car components from China.

"We now have the right to be reimbursed by our customers for these additional costs," Rivera said. If tariff exemptions can not be obtained, she added, the bill "will eventually have to be paid by taxpayers" from Boston.

"The MBTA continues to monitor potential tariff impacts on the current production of the 404 new vehicles," said Lisa Battiston, Deputy Press Secretary for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority.

In 2014, the CRRC won a $ 566-million contract with the authority to build 404 subway cars in Springfield in a new Chinese factory to build, which local and state authorities and labor leaders have described as Western Massachusetts. for decades.

In 2016, the transit company signed a contract with CRCC for an additional 120 cars for $ 277 million starting in 2022. In total, the rates could increase the total costs for the $ 200 million transportation company. or more.

The tariffs threatened to destroy a similar metro project between Chicago and the Chinese company, prompting Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to visit China in July and claim to have saved $ 1.3 billion. .

To the north, the ports of New York, from Buffalo to Ogdensburg, are another front of Trump's trade war, this time to Canada. After imposing tariffs in March on Chinese and Canadian steel and aluminum imports, Canadians retaliated against US exports of these products.

From 2017 to mid-2018, these ports processed approximately $ 8.3 billion worth of imported steel and aluminum, with approximately $ 5.5 billion that would have been included in the new Canadian tariffs, according to Associated Press data analysis by Times Union.

During the same period, these ports exported approximately $ 5.4 billion of US steel and aluminum to Canada, of which some $ 2.6 billion would have been affected by the corresponding Canadian tariffs.

All this is viewed with caution by automakers, who warn that metal and auto components can cross the border several times between factories, which can mean adding tariffs at each border crossing that would drive up the price of a vehicle.

Earlier this month, Trump warned that it could cause Canada's "ruin" by imposing additional tariffs on automobiles and related components, with major manufacturers setting up products on both sides. from the border.

"Anything that disrupts our economic integration is very worrying," said Garry Douglas, executive director of the North Country Chamber of Commerce. The group represents 3,200 companies in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Hamilton and Warren Counties, as well as in the Canadian province of Quebec.

Douglas said the economic relationship between New York and Canada has nothing to do with America's relations with China. "People should stop talking about trade, we are after trade and we are now in integrated production," he said.

For example, Nova Bus, a Plattsburgh-based company, sends US steel to a Canadian plant near Montreal, and returns it to Plattsburgh for final assembly. Similar cross-border trade is being made by car manufacturer Bombardier from its Plattsburgh facility.

Overall, between 2017 and mid-2018, the ports of northern New York processed approximately $ 16.1 billion worth of vehicles and components imported from Canada, while exporting about $ 7.2 billion dollars of these same products in Canada.

New York is part of a Canadian import market of vehicles and components worth more than $ 70 billion.

The Trump administration has used the threat of new tariffs on vehicles to force Canada to accept new trade terms under the North American Free Trade Agreement, which also includes Mexico.

Douglas said Trump's rates in the north of the country are "self-destructive," with more than 8,500 New Yorkers in his region now working for US subsidiaries of Canadian companies. "In Clinton County alone, about 15% of our workforce is tied to Canadian investment," he added.

UBC also dismissed Trump's often repeated allegation that the United States must punish Canada for not allowing full access to US dairy products, adding that Canada currently imports five times more US dairy products than US imports from Canada.