Column: Trump's tariff war spurs Lake County trade crusade

Chicago Tribune

05-05-2025

Lake County is becoming proactive when it comes to economic development in the area. The timing couldn't be better.
Business leaders, along with elected officials, recently became globalists, traveling to Mexico and Japan to tout the laurels of doing business here and in Illinois.
According to last week's Steve Sadin News-Sun story, Lake County Board Chair Sandy Hart, D-Lake Bluff, and Kevin Considine, president and CEO of Lake County Partners, were out and about lobbying foreign businesses to expand or locate in the county.
The separate trips came during the economic roiling hitting the U.S., caused by the trade war President Donald Trump has ignited by slapping high tariffs on many of our long-time trading partners. The jury is still out on what Trump's actions will accomplish, but in the short term, it doesn't look good for Americans' pocketbooks.
Worries over the international trade war Trump has unleashed were but one reason Hart journeyed to Mexico and Considine to Japan. They understand Lake County is a center of global enterprise, with many companies impacted by the president's tariff skirmishes.
Abbott Laboratories, AbbVie and Baxter don't just market their pharmaceuticals and diagnostics in the U.S. Their reach spans the globe.
Indeed, Lake County Partners, the Lincolnshire-based collaboration between private business and government, estimates nearly half of Illinois' biopharma output comes from Lake County. The Partners have been cultivating long-term economic growth and job creation in the county for more than 25 years.
Frequent readers know I have long railed over our neighboring states' cherry-picking Lake County firms and enticing them to the promised land of Kenosha County just over the Illinois state line. Companies like the shipping supply firm Uline, which began in a North Shore basement, have found continued success after moving much of its operation north to the friendly confines of America's Dairyland.
Trump's tariff crusade surely was another impetus for the trade trips. Considine reported in Sadin's account that 24 Japanese businesses are operating in the county. Another 15 firms headquartered in Germany are located here.
Supply-chain issues, too, weigh heavily on international firms, officials note. Hart said 83% of the continental U.S. population is a two-day trucking distance from Illinois.
'With the third-largest interstate highway network in the U.S., the most-connected intermodal rail system and the nation's largest airports and inland waterways for barges, manufacturers can transport their goods and people across the globe with greater speed and reliability,' she said.
Hart traveled to Mexico last month along with Gov. J.B. Pritzker on a trade mission organized by Intersect Illinois, the state's economic development organization.
Considine was in Japan in March as part of a delegation with the Greater Chicagoland Economic Partnership. Some 500 Japanese firms do business in the Chicago region, employing more than 60,000 workers.
Trump's tariff binge also may have spurred Abbott to announce an investment of $500 million in research and development at its sprawling headquarters campus off routes 43 and 137, along with a location in Dallas. The firm also has offices at Willis Tower in Chicago's Loop.
The pharmaceutical giant expects to hire an additional 200 people, the company said in a news release. Abbott has 89 manufacturing sites around the world, 35 in the U.S. Company officials said Abbott has invested nearly $5 billion in domestic manufacturing, with another $10.7 billion in R&D.
Another recent economic development win for the county was the announcement last month that Vantive, the Baxter International spinoff involved with kidney care products, will make a $23 million investment and site its new headquarters at 510 Lake-Cook Road in Deerfield, the former home of Caterpillar Inc., which bolted for Texas.
In a statement, Hart said that the action is, 'further solidifying Lake County's position as the number one life sciences hub in the Midwest.' The new company, with 200 employees, is receiving a state incentive package and expects to create another 50 full-time jobs.
With economists forecasting dire financial projections due to the imposition of trade tariffs, the recent actions by local and state officials put Lake County in a position to weather any forthcoming hardships. Even those issued by the Trump administration, which seems to enjoy targeting the Land of Lincoln.
With their planned investments, it doesn't look like business leaders at Abbott and Vantive are perturbed about what the president has to say about Illinois or about the economic bloodshed his trade battles may evoke.