Uncertainty over tariffs is causing chaos for some Massachusetts manufacturers
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At Matouk, an employee worked with an embroidery machine made in Germany.
David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
On a recent afternoon at Matouk's factory in Fall River, Cairo towels were being embroidered with designs by a machine from Germany, after which they are stitched and packaged for sale to customers across the country. The company employs about 280 people. It sells its products to retailers, such as Bloomingdale's, boutique hotels, and has a store in New York City.
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The cotton in the towels is from Egypt, where it's turned into yarn. Next, it moves to Portugal, where it is woven into terry cloths and dyed in colors of the company's choice and then transported by sea to the United States.
The Cairo towels are just one line of products from Matouk. The tariff regime proposed and then paused in part by Trump would affect goods the company makes at its Fall River factory, which account for 45 percent of its total sales.
CEO George Matouk runs a nearly century-old luxury linen manufacturer based in Fall River.
David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
A worker on a sewing machine at the Matouk factory.
David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
'We're talking about millions of dollars that the government is now going to be taxing us every year on materials that we require for manufacturing, job creation. And these materials are not available in the United States, and my opinion is that they never will be, no matter how long these tariffs are in place,' Matouk said.
Last week, Trump
At Blount Fine Foods, the company sources most of its fresh food ingredients in the United States. However, it imports broccoli from Mexico and Guatemala.
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When the Trump administration said it would
Blount said that at the moment, Mexican broccoli was not subject to tariffs under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which Trump negotiated during his first term, while the broccoli from Guatemala would be.
The company also imports equipment from Europe to automate some of its packaging and cooking. But the lack of clarity on whether the tariffs will, in fact, come into full effect has made it tough to budget for their cost.
'Our budget hasn't changed. So, worst case, we'll buy a little less equipment or delay a purchase until the following year,' Blount said. 'The uncertainty is almost as bad as the problem itself.'
A worker stood with a kettle manufactured in the United Kingdom at a Blount Fine Foods facility in Fall River.
David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
The speed with which US trade policies have shifted over the last two months may have caught some manufacturers, such as those in southern Massachusetts, flat-footed, economists said, and they now have to scramble to adjust to the new reality.
'They're either going to have to devote lots of resources to try to figure out new suppliers in countries with lower tariffs, compete with other domestic producers for access to domestic producers of those inputs — which don't necessarily exist — or make painful decisions about what product lines to keep up,' said
For
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'We've been trying to plan and make some sort of supply chain decisions and it's just been nearly chaotic and very difficult to understand,' Surprenant said.
Surprenant's company has 75 employees, and he has struggled to decide whether to raise prices. His biggest fear is that costs will suddenly go up, which could put pressure on the company's cash position.
'Ultimately, you never want to be losing money and not knowing it,' he said. 'It's just very difficult to plan.'
Surprenant said he takes pride in being a manufacturer in New Bedford, a city with a long, proud industrial history. He also said tariffs could help a company like his compete with cheaper Chinese alternatives.
But he is skeptical the Trump administration's trade policies will prove to be a catalyst for a new era of manufacturing in places like southern Massachusetts.
'I feel like they're rolling the dice on that because it's never really worked in any country if you go back 250 years and study where it's been done,' he said.
'Maybe I'll be wrong in five years and become a protectionist,' Surprenant said. 'But we've just never seen it work, so I am very nervous about that side of it.'
Omar Mohammed can be reached at
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