Jay Timmons, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers, talks about what the industry needs from the next administration to keep growing and to maintain global dominance.
Whoever takes the White House in November, the blueprint for keeping the U.S. manufacturing sector humming is pretty simple, thanks in large part to the 2017 tax cuts enacted during former President Trump’s term.
“He predicted that those tax reforms would serve as rocket fuel for our industry, and they did exactly that. We had record investment, we had record job creation, and we had record wage growth for the three or four years [of his term],” National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) CEO Jay Timmons told FOX Business.
“There is a lot of talk right now from both sides of the aisle, quite frankly, about the possibility of raising taxes on manufacturers, taxes on businesses. That’s not going to help us. You know, that’s not going to help us grow. That is not going to help our economy grow. And it’s certainly not going to help our leadership,” he said.
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, attend the first day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Trump and his vice presidential running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, have said renewing those cuts, which expire in 2025, is part of their road map. Manufacturers, according to Timmons, whose NAM represents 14,000 member companies and 13 million workers, also want a top-down review of regulations that have become costly for the sector.
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General Motors assembly plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. (Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“There’s been an onslaught of regulations that cost manufacturers about $350 billion every year in regulatory costs, and that, you know, that harms our ability to really invest in new technologies, new plants, new equipment as well as job growth” he said. “We want to see a kind of top-to-bottom review of all the regulations that have been imposed on manufacturers,” he added, noting 74% of manufacturing businesses have less than 20 employees, making it more costly to implement regulations versus a larger company.
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Timmons said the Biden administration has a good track record of listening to manufacturer’s concerns but is slow to act.
A worker uses a brushing machine to refinish reclaimed wooden siding at the Hudson Co. sawmill in Pine Plains, New York, on April 10. (Angus Mordant/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
While NAM insists jobs are at the highest since 2008, recent data points have shown some headwinds. ADP’s July National Employment report, issued Wednesday, reported 4,000 job eliminations, and June’s government labor report last month showed 8,000 reductions. Manufacturing additions in Friday’s upcoming August employment report are expected to be flat, according to estimates. The average annual salary for manufacturing employees is more than $98,000, per NAM.
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Timmons said he and his members will reach out to the Vice President Harris campaign as well as the Trump-Vance ticket. He also said the industry is welcome to meeting any and all election candidates and willing to show them the shop floors and what they need to keep the industry rooted in America solid and growing, which also includes favorable trade agreements.
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