‘Ticking Time Bomb': Texas Companies Reel From Trump's Sprawling Trade War Even Amid a Tariff Truce

WASHINGTON — The trade war never stopped for Chelsey Thiebaud.While President Donald Trump has pushed a tariff truce of late to help calm global markets — imposing no new levies since September — the Fort Worth roofing company owned by Thiebaud and her husband is among the many businesses still reeling from import duties already in place.It’s a financial burden that grows every day, with TEK Roofing Systems taking a hit that now totals well into six figures.“We’ve just eaten it,” said Thiebaud, whose company has laid off one of its eight employees and taken out high-interest loans to cover a 25 percent tariff that went into effect in August on stone-coated steel roofing imported from China. “It’s not great.”That kind of pain lingers all over Texas as many companies face the false choice of shouldering unexpected costs or passing along the burden to consumers or seeking relief through an unforgiving bureaucracy or even confronting the sometimes impossible task of seeking new supply lines.Adding to their frustration is the growing sense that the tariff toll has faded into the background amid myriad trade negotiations and, more broadly, an unrelated federal government shutdown over border wall funding.All of the import levies that Trump imposed last year remain in effect. All of them.  Continue reading...