MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- A mid-state researcher says President Donald Trump’s proposed actions on foreign trade, if enacted, could cost Tennessee millions of dollars in potential new business.
MTSU’s Dr. Steven Livingston edits the Tennessee Global Commerce report. Livingston says Trump’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal was a blow to Tennessee Agriculture.
“The poultry industry was maybe the single biggest loser. That’s probably going to cost Tennessee poultry several hundred million dollars right there.”
Dr. Livingston says experts estimated that TPP could have benefited Tennessee to the tune of some $3 billion in total. He says the cost of dropping TPP will seem insignificant if President Trump dramatically alters or scuttles the North American Free Trade Agreement as he’s promised.
Livingston says the threat to levy stiff tariffs against imports from Mexico could also be a blow to the Tennessee economy.
“The Tennessee auto industry imports and exports a huge amount of product from Mexico. So I think you could see a very stiff increase in automobile prices for starters, and then secondarily a lot of consumer goods; food stuffs and things like that that come in from Mexico.”
Livingston says if President Trump does make all of the changes to the nation’s foreign trade he’s promised, it will be the biggest shakeup in trade policy the country’s seen in 80 years.
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