Kip Eideberg, SVP, Government & Industry Relations & Communications for the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) talks tariffs, inflation, and the effect of both on the remaining funding available in the Infrastructure Investement and Jobs Act.
Rod Sutton: We’re coming in right after the election. Donald Trump is our President-elect, and we’re also coming in right after AEM’s annual conference, which you folks held right after the election. So just following up on the conference, is there a sense that you can give me for what your members are feeling about the incoming administration, specifically in regards to equipment manufacturing and the construction industry?
Kip Eideberg: Great question, Rod. I think that it’s like any administration whether it’s an incoming administration or a returning administration. There’s gonna be a few challenges and a few opportunities facing the the industry. We are hopeful that we’re gonna have to have a constructive working relationship with the new administration on rolling back some of the many regulations that are making it just a little bit more difficult to manufacture equipment in the United States. So that’s certainly a positive.
Negatives, or cause for concern, let’s call it: obviously tariffs. There’s been no shortage of announcements from from the President-elect, and and some of the folks on his transition team and and folks on Capitol Hill who are close with him, that they are going to leverage tariffs.
As a negotiating tactic, perhaps as a way of offsetting some costs, raising revenue for the U.S. Treasury. That’s a concern. Tariffs are taxes. They’re taxes on American businesses. They’re taxes on American consumers. They’re going to make us less competitive, and they are inflationary by nature.
Watch the video for the rest of the conversation.
3:30 How to respond to the threat of tariffs.
4:30 Effects of tariffs on equipment pricing.
6:36 Inflation and IIJA
10:12 The future of thev United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
