Iron Range jobs, exports bounce back with help of Trump tariffs

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Mines and logging companies are hiring, small businesses are expanding and Minnesota’s Iron Range is bouncing back from the mine and production facility closures that hit hard just a few years ago.

A new state budget and economic forecast reflected positive news for the Iron Range, which added jobs in recent years and has seen a strong boost in iron ore exports, used to create steel. State budget officials credited tariffs on imported steel with helping bolster the local economy.

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For Donald Trump, it could also mean a political boost. Minnesota’s mining country was struggling in 2015 and 2016, when it couldn’t compete with other countries’ illegal dumping of low-priced steel. President Barack Obama responded with tariffs to combat the dumping, and Trump’s administration imposed additional tariffs. Trump's tariffs have had varied impacts in different industries, and the new state forecast report by Minnesota Management and Budget notes that escalating trade rhetoric with China in 2018 hurt soybean farmers and led to the lowest soybean prices in a decade. But for Minnesota’s iron ore industry, the tariffs on imported steel have been a boon.

Iron ore exports were up 42 percent in the third quarter of 2018 compared to the previous year, the forecast states. That bodes well for Trump in 2020, said state Rep. Sandy Layman, R-Cohasset, who said voters on the Iron Range and elsewhere vote their pocketbook.


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http://www.startribune.com/iron-range-jobs-exports-up-after-trump-tariffs/506582012/