When President Donald Trump met with the head of Taiwan Semiconductor on Monday, March 3 to announce a $100 billion investment in American chip factories in the next few years, the North Carolina furniture business wasn’t expected to be a topic of conversation; however, Trump made some remarks that day that, if accurate, should make a lot of people in High Point and other past furniture centers in North Carolina happy.

Taiwan Semiconductor’s business is likely to end up in Arizona, but the president took some time to speak about what he expects to see happen due to tariffs he’s already placed on Canada, Mexico and China – and the ones he intends to add to many other countries on April 2.

Trump said Taiwan Semis’ investment was due to his tariffs and said there will be a lot of other exciting similar announcements in the future, including ones that pertain to North Carolina.

“And so, I think it’s going to be very exciting,” the president said in the televised meeting from the Roosevelt Room in the White House about 3 p.m. on Monday. “Very exciting for the automobile companies. Very exciting for – I can think of any – as an example, North Carolina, they had the great – I used to go there to buy furniture for hotels, and it’s been wiped out.”

Between 1999 and 2009, North Carolina’s furniture manufacturing industry lost more than half of its jobs.

In that one decade alone, the North Carolina furniture industry lost over half of its jobs due to low-cost furniture imported from mostly China and other Asian countries. The US-China Bilateral Trade Agreement, signed in November 1999 lowered US tariff barriers and eased the way for China to join the World Trade Organization. At that time, proponents of the agreement predicted that it would have a relatively modest effect on US manufacturing imports and jobs.

However, the impact was much greater than anticipated and the city of High Point was particularly hard hit.

But this week, Trump said that, in the long run, the new tariffs will improve things for the US.

North Carolina led the nation in the number of workers displaced from their jobs because of U.S. trade policies.

The High Point Market – formerly the International Home Furnishings Market and the Southern Furniture Market – is the largest home furnishings industry trade show in the world; so, it’s not surprising that Trump used to go there to select some furniture for his properties.

He said Monday, “That business all went to other countries, and now it’s all going to come back into North Carolina — the furniture manufacturing business.”

Trump is arguing that, since Americans will have to pay higher prices for furniture from other countries once the tariffs are in place, furniture makers will choose to open shop in the US.

Not everyone is as convinced as Trump that tariffs will be a panacea that cures all ills.

The president ran largely on lowering prices on eggs and other items in the US,  but most economists believe the tariff will exacerbate the increasing inflation rate that just recently began to uptick again.

During the presidential campaign late last year, Trump promised repeatedly that, when he won,  he would bring prices down “starting on day one.”

That hasn’t happened, however, and many are concerned that the tariffs will make the problem of inflation worse.

In February, inflation ceased its downward trend and crept up half a percentage point, the largest monthly increase in nearly two years.

So, the country is split on the president’s new tariff war on allies and enemies alike.

Those who believe Trump think it will bring a lot of new business to America and old business back to America, while others argue that taking what’s likely to be an inflationary measure. at a time when people are already suffering from very high prices, isn’t a very good idea.

Here is Trump’s argument on tariffs which he presented Monday when Taiwan Semiconductor made its announcement: “What they’ll have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States — in which case, they have no tariffs.  In other words, you build — and this is exactly what Mr. Wei [the head of Taiwan Semiconductors] is doing by building here.  Otherwise, they’ll build — if they did them in Taiwan to send them here, they’ll have 25 percent or 30 percent or 50 percent or whatever the number may be someday.  It’ll go only up.  But by doing it here, he has no tariffs, so he’s way ahead of the game.”

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