The Midwest has all the ingredients necessary to lead a manufacturing renaissance – rich mineral deposits, vast timber resources, a skilled workforce, and a proud tradition of industrial muscle and innovation. Today, with the right policies and President Trump in office, the Midwest can reclaim its place as a leader in manufacturing and resource development.
For decades, U.S. trade policies have hollowed out Midwest manufacturing towns, sending jobs overseas and leaving American workers behind. American farmers and workers can compete head-to-head with anyone in the world – if the rules are fair. Unfortunately, for the last several decades, they haven’t been.
Since the 1990s, too many Americans have been victims of a calculated trade war, with foreign governments enacting high tariffs and other barriers on U.S. products. These countries then proceeded to flood our markets with cheap and often subsidized foreign goods – some even produced with forced labor. While other countries have protected their industries, Washington allowed the Midwest to be sold out. Instead of exporting American-made products, we exported family-wage jobs.
The numbers tell the story. While the United States has one of the lowest most-favored-nation tariff rates at just 3.3 percent, countries like Brazil, China, and India impose tariffs three to five times higher on American goods. This isn’t “free trade.” Instead, it was a recipe for stripping down much of America’s industrial sector for parts and shipping it off to Communist China.
President Trump is taking decisive action to change that. By imposing equalization tariffs, he is ensuring that foreign competitors – especially Communist China – can no longer take advantage of American workers. President Trump did not start this trade war. He is just the first American leader in a generation to finally punch back.
We are already beginning to see the results. Not only have we seen an investment of hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States, but companies like Hyundai, General Motors, and Nissan plan to boost production here in America. Many countries are already coming to the negotiating table to lower their trade impediments to U.S. products. Some 50 countries, including Taiwan, Vietnam, and India, have already offered to drop their tariff rates.
But reducing foreign trade barriers alone won’t be enough. America must also look in the mirror. If the Midwest is going to reclaim its role as America’s manufacturing powerhouse, we must also eliminate the domestic barriers that have stalled industrial growth and resource development. For too long, environmental activist litigation and bureaucratic red tape have crippled key industries – subjecting critical projects to regulatory strait jackets, analysis paralysis, and death by delay.
The United States is sitting on some of the richest mineral deposits in the world, yet we remain dependent on foreign suppliers, many of whom use slave and child labor, violate human rights with impunity, and devastate air, land, and water quality with reckless and destructive mining practices. In 2023, China accounted for nearly 70 percent of global strategic mineral production – despite the fact that America has the resources under our feet.
Northern Minnesota’s Duluth Complex, one of the most mineral-rich regions in the world, is a prime example. Buried beneath our Iron Range are nearly 8 billion tons of copper, nickel, cobalt, and platinum group metals, all critical materials for national defense and battery storage. Yet instead of tapping these resources and creating good-paying jobs here at home, we allow endless permitting delays to hold back progress. It should not take longer to build a mine (an average of 29 years) than it took to put a man on the moon (eight years).
The Midwest has the potential to not only strengthen our supply chains but also ensure that American workers – not foreign competitors – benefit. Instead of allowing bureaucratic red tape to choke our industries, we must embrace our own natural resources, end our reliance on hostile foreign suppliers, and expedite our permitting process. Because when we mine in America, we manufacture in America.
With the fair trade and permitting reform agenda of President Trump, the Midwest can once again reclaim its place as a global leader in manufacturing. Our region has powered America before, and with the right policies, we can do it again. By investing in our natural resources, revitalizing industrial production, and standing up to foreign trade abuses, the Midwest will lead the charge in America’s next great manufacturing resurgence. It’s time to bring back American jobs, restore American industry, and fight for a future where “Made in the Midwest” means something again.
Congressman Tom Tiffany represents Wisconsin’s Seventh Congressional District. He grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin.
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