Intersection: The Impact of Tariffs on Florida’s Trillion Dollar Economy

Listen to Alice Ancona, Director of International Strategy and Policy, with the Florida Chamber of Commerce explain the potential impacts of a trade war on Florida’s economy on 90.7 WMFE.

Could tariffs hurt Florida’s $1 trillion economy?  Tariffs and the threat of trade war are leaving Florida businesses worried.

Alice Ancona, director of International Strategy and Policy with the Florida Chamber of Commerce says manufacturing is feeling the impact.

“Some of those imported components will certainly add to the costs either making the production of these final products cost prohibitive or being unable to fulfill a contract based on escalated costs due to the tariffs that are being implemented,” Ancona says.

She says international trade is a quarter of Florida’s economy and these tariffs are “a pretty significant impact.”

“It’s not an immediate hit, but we are very concerned about what the long term impact could be to manufacturing activity and our exporting potential,” Ancona says.

Ancona says investments are an important part of “what we do as our trade portfolio.”

“These actions on tariffs could also jeopardize or impact our investments, foreign-direct investments into the state. These are relationships that we have built over the years and they’re based on our ability to be good trading partners with the rest of the world,” she says.

She says she hopes this can start a conversation on fairer trade.

“I think there’s pretty good documentation that U.S. companies have not had a level playing field internationally and those are issues that need to be addressed. A trade war is not exactly the best way to do that, but perhaps that could lead to a positive income and outcome and we can avoid an all out trade war and address those unfair trading practices.”