At a small US factory, Trump’s trade war forces hard changes

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In this Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, photo Sarmad Eskandar, left, and Mustpha Damen work on electrical components at the Howard McCray's commercial refrigeration manufacturing facility in Philadelphia. The tax cuts that President Donald Trump pushed through Congress last year sharply reduced the tax burden on businesses. Yet Christopher Scott, president of Howard McCray, says that for his company, the higher tariffs, which are taxes on imports, have largely nullified any benefit he expected from the tax cuts. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sitting in his office beside photos of grandchildren decked in Philadelphia Flyers jerseys, Christopher Scott shakes his head. Another email has come in from another supplier. It wants to raise prices to cover the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

For weeks, emails and letters have been arriving in a steady stream at Howard McCray, the small Philadelphia factory Scott runs with about 85 workers. It’s mostly bad news. One supplier is charging more for shelving brackets, another for electrical switches, a third for wheeled castors. McCray needs those parts for the refrigerated display cases it produces for convenience stores and restaurants.

Since Trump imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum and on Chinese products, Scott, like many other American manufacturers, has had to rapidly switch gears.