A group of Maine business leaders and homebuilders scheduled a press event Monday to talk about anticipated impacts of tariffs on their industries.
Author: NEWS CENTER Maine Staff, Donovan Lynch | Updated: 5:27 PM EDT April 14, 2025
A group of Maine business owners and other industry leaders held a press conference Monday to discuss current, anticipated, and ongoing impacts from tariffs.
PORTLAND, Maine — A group of Maine business leaders and homebuilders outlined the negative impacts the Trump administration’s new tariffs could have on their business during a press conference at a Portland brewery Monday.
While President Trump announced he would delay many tariffs on countries just hours after they took effect last Wednesday, his 10 percent baseline duty on most imports is still in effect. Tariffs on China have also gone to 145 percent.
The business owners outlined the harm these tariffs could have—even on products they don’t purchase from abroad.
Mark Ferguson, who owns the South Portland axe maker Brant & Cochran, buys the steel for his tools from American mills. But since the fear of tariffs has spread, more companies have turned to domestic manufacturing, overloading their capacity and raising prices, he said.
“If this continues on months and months and tariffs are up and down and we start getting price increases from other suppliers, we’ll have no choice but to raise our prices,” Ferguson said.
Other industries have celebrated the White House’s embrace of trade barriers. Dennis Scanell, who serves as president of the Lowell Iron and Steel Company in Massachusetts, told WBUR tariffs will help his company compete with Canada. “The tariffs, thank god they’re coming,” he told the outlet.
Beyond the effect duties could have on price, speakers in Portland Monday also criticized the unpredictability with which the White House has put in place, then delayed, the tariffs.
“A business is not going to invest if they don’t know what is coming down the pike,” Quincy Hentzel of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce said. “If they had development projects or expansion plans, that’s just all been put on hold.”
A cross-section of business owners and leaders from a variety of industries attended the press conference:
- Tom Ruff, founder and CEO of Orange Bike Brewing Company
- Travis Blake, president of the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Maine
- Mark Ferguson, president of Brant & Cochran
- Mary Chapman and Will Sizzle, owners of Sizzle & Daughters Cheesemongers and Grocers
- Patrick Lyons, head of product at North Spore
- Quincy Hentzel, president and CEO of Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce
“The purpose of today’s press conference is to shed light on a critical issue that is impacting all of us: the ongoing tariffs and their effects on local businesses and economies,” Andi Robbins of Orange Bike Brewing said at the event. “While we may come from different sectors—brewing, farming, retail, manufacturing, and beyond—we are united by a common message: these tariffs are hurting us all.”
Robbins and other speakers went on to explain that the disruptions caused by the back-and-forth decisions on tariffs, as well as added expenses along the supply chain and uncertainty of market changes, are generating ripple effects that directly impact local businesses and consumers.
“We need a trade policy that gives people and businesses confidence to move forward,” Travis Blake, president of the Home Builders and Remodelers Association of Maine, shared.
Blake explained that the impacts of uncertainty at each stage of the homebuilding process are affecting stakeholders from start to finish, which he said adds to the existing challenges of Maine’s housing crisis.
The event was coordinated by a group called Tariffs Cost US, which is self-described as a “new campaign dedicated to providing the public with reliable, comprehensive information about global trade and tariffs, and their impact on both businesses and consumers.”
Watch the entire press conference: HERE
