Orlando CEO: Trump tariffs endanger boat industry

The CEO of one of Central Florida’s biggest boating companies told U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson on Monday his industry could be among the hardest hit by the Trump administration’s tariffs, potentially costing thousands of jobs, including 200 in Orlando.

Nelson, who said the U.S. was now in a “full-scale trade war,” promised he’d call for congressional hearings into the effects of the tariffs. But he warned Republicans might not go along “if that’s going to be embarrassing to the White House.”

Bill Yeargin, CEO of Orlandobased Correct Craft, said the recreational boating industry will be hurt both by the new tariffs imposed by President Trump and the counter-tariffs that foreign countries set in retaliation.

Correct Craft employs 1,300 people, including 600 in Central Florida, and the company’s Nautique facility in southeast Orange County had been the site of a roundtable event in November featuring Vice President Mike Pence and Gov. Rick Scott, who touted the benefits of the recently passed tax bill.

Now, as the administration’s trade war escalates, Yeargin told Nelson he estimated “200 of [our] jobs could be at risk if it doesn’t come to a resolution.” He added the industry as a whole could lose as much as 650,000 jobs.

“We’re not planning any layoffs, but our employees also understand we’re trying to create visibility [to the issue.],” Yeargin said. “Eventually, it’s going to be a big problem.”

The industry will have to deal with 10 to 25 percent tariffs on the more than 300 Chinese component parts it uses to make boats, according to analysis provided to Nelson. The Trump administration also placed a 10 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports, a policy the administration said was done for national security.

But the tariffs that could have the biggest impact on the industry are the retaliatory ones imposed by nations and trade organizations targeted by the U.S., including 10 percent tariffs on U.S. goods in Canada, 15 percent in Mexico and 25 percent in the European Union.

“And those are the ones that could potentially be the most damaging,” Yeargin said. “[They] make boats significantly more expensive going into those countries. About 30 percent of our business relates to boats we ship into 70 countries around the world. And we’re concerned that the tariffs are putting those boat sales at risk.”

Nelson, the ranking Democratic member on the Senate Commerce Committee said he would ask Republican Chairman U.S. Sen. John Thune, “a reasonable person,” to hold hearings on tariffs. But he also said he doubted it would happen before an election.

“If we don’t watch out, it can get out of control,” Nelson said afterward. “You take a boat-building industry that is so important in Florida — it’s a huge number of billions of dollars, thousands of jobs in Florida.”

With tariffs on U.S. goods in Europe at 25 percent, “you pretty much price yourself out of the market when the cost of a boat goes up 25 percent. And they won’t buy them.”

Nelson said the threat is that not only will there be retaliatory tariffs, “but then, the United States