The CEO of an American boat manufacturer perfectly laid out how Trump's tariffs are crushing US businesses

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President Donald Trump walks past a boat while touring a Made in America product showcase at the White House

• President Donald Trump's tariffs have put US businesses in the crosshairs of a trade war.
• Bill Yeargin, the CEO of US boat manufacturer Correct Craft, warned about the consequences of Trump's trade fights in an op-ed on Monday.
• "We have found ourselves in the crosshairs of a trade war, one that will drown out the effects of tax reform and risk our industry's promising future, taking American workers and consumers down with it," Yeargin wrote.
• The CEO also laid out the three big reasons that Trump's tariffs hurt US businesses.

President Donald Trump's tariffs are hitting US businesses with a triple whammy, according to one manufacturing CEO.

Bill Yeargin, the CEO of US boat manufacturer Correct Craft, laid out in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner how harmful Trump's recent tariffs are for both his own company and the US economy as a whole.

Yeargin's firm builds a slew of popular boat brands, such as the specialty ski brand Nautique. Correct Craft employs more than 1,300 American workers and has six manufacturing plants around the US, but despite the homegrown nature of the business, Trump's tariffs are taking a toll.

The Correct Craft CEO said Trump's trade fights are leading to higher costs and threaten boat sales. In fact, Yeargin said the tariffs pose an existential threat to the US boat manufacturing industry.

"We have found ourselves in the crosshairs of a trade war, one that will drown out the effects of tax reform and risk our industry's promising future, taking American workers and consumers down with it," he wrote.

In laying out the threat the trade war poses, Yeargin identified the three ways that Trump's trade fights are contributing to pain for US manufacturers:

1. Tariffs caused the price of imported parts to increase: Tariffs act as taxes on imports, which in turn cause the prices of the goods hit with those taxes to increase. Trump slapped both Chinese aluminum sheet and all aluminum, two important elements for boat manufacturing, with substantial tariffs. Additionally, Trump's tariffs on Chinese goods added an extra duty to pieces of boat engines, and the next wave of tariffs could hit "300 different component parts used by the marine industry." So Correct Crafts costs are increasing, cutting into profits.
2. The prices of US goods are also increasing due to market distortions: Correct Craft sources nearly all of the aluminum sheet used in its boats from the US - more than 90% according to Yeargin - but this has not protected the company from price increases. As domestic producers have seen foreign prices rise, so too have US aluminum producers used this new pricing power. According to Yeargin, the price of domestic aluminum has risen by 20% to 30% due to market distortions created by the tariffs.
3. Retaliatory tariffs on US exports are hurting American companies that send goods abroad: Yeargin said that retaliatory tariffs on boats by Canada, Mexico, and the European Union - which represent a large portion of the firm's overseas sales - will harm sales and "puts the industry's $1.8 billion in recreational boat and engine exports and the jobs of Americans in jeopardy."

Yeargin says Trump's trade policies will come back to bite the US

Correct Craft can respond to combination of these three factors in a few different ways. The company can lay off workers to bring down labor costs, increase prices on consumers, or move its manufacturing outside of the US to a country not facing tariffs (similar to Harley-Davidson's decision).

Given these worrying options Correct Craft faces, Yeargin concluded that Trump's trade policies will ultimately come back to bite the US.

"Many Americans are understandably tired of longstanding and unfair trade agreements, and President Trump should be applauded for concentrating the world's attention on the issue," the Correct Craft CEO wrote. "However, his administration's current trade policies of increasing protectionism are unfairly targeting US manufacturing industries, and will cause lasting damage to US businesses, jobs, and families."

The problems aren't just limited to boat manufacturers. American firms that produce everything from TVs to nails to lobster traps are dealing with similar cost pressures.

The cost increases are already forcing these firms to make tough choices. Some US businesses have had to lay off workers, while others are raising prices on consumers to handle the hit.

Regardless of how these companies are managing, it's clear that Trump's trade fights are taking a toll on American business.