According to Johan "Kip" Eideberg of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), tariffs alone will not lead to a new golden age for manufacturing in the United States. Eideberg argues that President Donald Trump's administration risks undermining its own industrial ambitions by making construction in America more expensive, Kallanish reports.
In an article published in Fortune magazine, Eideberg writes that manufacturing remains a central element of Trump's economic vision, even as courts and politicians change the legal framework for certain elements of the administration's tariff regime. Eidenberg argues that tariffs on steel, aluminum and derivative components raise costs for domestic producers at the very moment when Washington says it wants to increase production and competitiveness.
"President Trump's goal of ushering in the greatest manufacturing era in American history remains unchanged," says Eideberg, AEM's senior vice president of government and industry relations. "But the fatal flaw of the administration's current tariff strategy is that it raises the cost of manufacturing in America."
Eideberg opposes well-known protectionist advocates such as Oren Kass, Michael Lind, and former U.
S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who argued that tariffs were necessary to restore industrial capacity and ensure supply chain security. He says these arguments overlook how the production of modern equipment actually works.
"Supply chains are vast, complex, and global," Eideberg notes. "Companies operate according to multi-year investment cycles, and suppliers cannot be laid off overnight."
This means that attempts to accelerate reorganisation through tariffs may lead to bottlenecks, shortages and inefficiencies rather than strengthening the sector, he argues. Higher raw material costs threaten export efficiency by reducing the competitiveness of U.
S.-made equipment internationally.
"Higher raw material costs make American goods less attractive in foreign markets, forcing manufacturers to either cover losses or shift production abroad in order to remain competitive," says Eideberg.
He warns that labor shortages pose an even more serious structural barrier to any large-scale transformation. According to him, the manufacturing sector is already experiencing difficulties filling hundreds of thousands of vacancies, while there are more than 85,000 vacancies in the equipment industry alone. Exit to
