The Good News:The United States agreed last Friday to lift its tariffs on industrial metals (aluminum and steel) from Mexico and Canada, clearing a major obstacle to congressional passage of President Trump's new North American trade deal. The agreement calls for Mexico and Canada to implement stringent new monitoring and enforcement measures to prevent subsidized Chinese steel from being shipped to the United States via their territories. It's unlikely our industry will reap any immediate benefit from this resolution - but it's a positive move for our country none-the-less.
The Bad News:Not much has changed regarding our trade dispute with China. In fact, Curtis Chin, an Asia fellow at the Milken (think tank) Institute recently stated: :"It's going to get worse before it gets better."Most major lighting manufacturers have already implemented their price increases (avg. of 15%), and we've recently seen a non-lighting manufacturer push through an 11%, tariff-related increase (see table below).
