It’s Not Easy Being Global

By Garry Douglas

Kermit the frog tells us that it’s not easy being green. Well, change green to global and you have the sentiment of the day here in the North Country.

Our area continues to sustain and grow an amazing array of manufacturers that is well beyond any norm for a mostly rural county of 85,000 people. And that’s because we have so successfully cultivated and exploited our geography as an economic beachhead for Quebec in the U.S., in turn hosting manufacturers who import and export with the entire world. The result is an economy very few other communities like Plattsburgh could imagine, though it can often be taken for granted locally.

This is why the continued tariff turbulence is very real here and not just theoretical. It affects the carefully developed supply connections between our Canadian companies and the U.S. operations we host as well as other international supply chains.

By the time this is published, the April 28th Canadian election will be behind us, providing a government and Prime Minister with the ability and mandate to engage in a negotiated way forward. This cannot happen soon enough and we will be watching more closely in our region than perhaps in any other except Detroit-Windsor.

Our Canadian connections in everything from manufacturing and distribution to construction, energy, agriculture, and tourism will continue to draw our top attention. No manufacturing hub today is free of vital supply and customer connections with other countries now in flux, including China. And while there is broad consensus behind “getting tough” with China, there is a dire need for attention to near term collateral damage on U.S. companies and employers who have logically developed supply connections with the country’s manufacturers for various components and ingredients necessary for production of a whole range of products right in our backyard, from valves to lighting fixtures and machinery among others.

The hyper tariffs on China, and the impacts of their retaliatory tariffs on us, are seriously threatening some of our manufacturers’ ability to produce and compete. And for many situations, it can take years to develop a reliable, quality-controlled alternative supply chain.

Many tariffs imposed in years past included a process by which a company could seek to justify an exception but none of the recent tariffs carry any such possibility, even to seek a grace period while arranging an alternative. This is something we continue to convey to Washington as this ride continues.

It’s indeed not easy being global, but it’s the foundation of our regional economy in so many ways.