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Daily Bread for 7.18.25: Tariffs’ Consequences for Wisconsin

Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 78. Sunrise is 5:32 and sunset is 8:29, for 14 hours, 56 minutes of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 42.9 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1821, the United States takes possession of Florida after the Kingdom of Spain cedes the territory.


Tariffs’ effects are notable for Wisconsin manufacturing. In an interview with Kate Archer Kent, President and Managing Director Sandi Siegel of customs brokerage M.E. Dey & Co. described tariffs’ toll on prices:

KAK: Can you bring this down to the micro level in Wisconsin? Are individual consumers and households seeing the effects of these tariffs and trade threats?

SS: I ask customers myself when we meet and talk about the challenges. Are you passing on the tariffs to your customer? Are you absorbing it? How are you managing that? I won’t say all companies, but I’d say most companies can absorb, not happily, but they can absorb a 10 percent increase (from tariffs). When you start getting into some of these higher dollar amounts, like percentages for China and some of the other rate increases going on, that is a different conversation. They certainly are passing on those rates. 

One of the bigger impacts that has been coming fast and furious is the (50 percent) steel and aluminum tariffs. We’re a heavy manufacturing community in Wisconsin, and their raw materials are being impacted heavily. My understanding is some of the steel and materials needed can’t be sourced even within the U.S. So there are some definite challenges there that certainly are increasing prices. 

See Lauren Cox, How latest Trump administration tariffs and trade disputes are affecting commerce in Wisconsin (‘Changing tariffs and shifting trade negotiation deadlines has created challenges for Wisconsin companies importing and exporting goods’), Wisconsin Public Radio, July 16, 2025.


Watch whale nudge boat during close encounter:

A curious whale came pretty close to a group of whale watchers off the coast of Argentina.

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