The State, a South Carolina newspaper, is reporting that Fairfield County is about to lose 126 jobs as a consequence of the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Elements Electronics, a TV-maker, is letting go of the employees. In a letter to the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce, Element wrote “the layoff and closure is a result of the new tariffs that were recently and unexpectedly imposed on many goods imported from China, including the key television components used in our assembly operations in Winnsboro.”
The new layoffs hit a region that is already economically depleted, having lost a textile mill last year.
“When you think you’ve reached rock bottom, to get kicked in the gut like this, you didn’t think anything more could happen,” state Senator Mike Fanning told the newspaper.
As The State notes, South Carolina as a whole has been suffering from the new trade regime. “Trump’s tariffs already have made an impact in manufacturing-heavy South Carolina,” the newspaper observes. “Swedish automaker Volvo has said it may have to break its promise to hire 4,000 employees for a new plant in South Carolina. And German automaker BMW recently wrote U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross saying the tariffs could jeopardize 45,000 S.C. jobs, including 10,000 at its Spartanburg plant and 35,000 at BMW suppliers.”
Trump won South Carolina handily in 2016, although he lost Fairfield County. But however Fairfield voted, the situation of South Carolina as a whole supports the idea that Trump’s trade wars will hurt his supporters as the most.