Whether you’re looking to buy a new baseball glove or build a new stadium, President Donald Trump’s trade war could be of concern.
The Salt Lake County Council recently learned from its finance department that a recreation center slated for the city of Draper would be hit with $2.2 million in unexpected costs related to the rising cost of steel.
"This was a surprise — it came to us mid-year,” county council member Jenny Wilson told the local Salt Lake City CBS affiliate. “It means we're going to have less swing sets in the future, fewer parks, or we're not going to be able to keep up on the maintenance as well."
Trump’s trade war is now hitting us at the local level. Just minutes ago in my Salt Lake County Council Meeting we had to find $1.6 million unanticipated for parks and recreation projects due largely to steel tariffs. The trade war is hurting us at home with more pain to come. pic.twitter.com/3jJTTvHlI0
— Jenny Wilson for UT (@JennyWilsonUT) July 10, 2018
Wilson is running for U.S. Senate as a Democrat against Republican Mitt Romney. She said the county’s finance department went through the Draper recreation center project identifying any steel parts of the project so they could account for the new costs.
The impacts of a broad trade war won’t stop with facilities materials.
The Sports and Fitness Industry Association on Wednesday put out a statement noting that the U.S. Trade Representative released a proposed list of products imported from China that would face new tariffs, which included sports bags, as well as baseball gloves, softball gloves, hockey gloves and ski gloves.
“SFIA believes a trade war will hurt American consumers, businesses and workers. It’s not clear how this gets resolved once it starts,” said SFIA CEO and president, Tom Cove. “We do not support this approach to trade and encourage the president to use alternative negotiating tactics to secure concessions from China to ensure a fair playing field.”
The White House is engaged in an open trade war with China, impacting everything from solar panels, washing machines and steel. Trump has already imposed $90.7 billion on Chinese goods, with another $216 billion on the way. In all, Trump has threatened a total of $716.7 billion in new tariffs on goods imported from China.
