Rotary hosted a joint meeting with the Parks Chamber of Commerce and the Executive Director, Deb Nau, invited a special panel to discuss “Tariffs and Your Wallet”. The panel was moderated by attorney Thomas Green, senior attorney for Machesney Park; it included Richard Paullin, Executive Director of the International Trade Association of Greater Chicago and Robert Evans, Economics Professor from Rockford University. They explained that a tariff is essentially a tax on a purchase and may be imposed for many reasons such as to help protect domestic startup companies or industries or often to force a country or government to behave in a different manner more acceptable to the people enforcing the tariff. As part of their discussion, they observed that President Trump is planning on raising the tariff on imports from China from 10% to 25% beginning January 1st in spite of concerns raised by many economists. The panel said that the US actually led the global economy in moving away from tariffs toward free trade and this would mark a 180 degree change in direction. They felt the move is being made, not as a matter of foreign policy, but as an attempt to solve our economic woes. Further, it is their opinion that the increase will pretty much impact all consumers with increased prices due to the current heavy reliance on imports from China. Overall, a very interesting topic and one bound to generate a great deal of discussion. Thank you, Deb and the Parks Chamber, for promoting this panel discussion.
