Tariffs and faith

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: It’s Thursday the 1st of May.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

First up: Tariffs!

Last week we reported on how people living in towns along the Canadian border are reacting to President Trump’s trade policies.

Today, perspectives on Trump's tariffs from another part of the country.

BARNES: People have lost their boats. They’ve lost their homes. They’ve had to get into other industries. It’s been bad.

BROWN: Henry Barnes insists he’s not exaggerating. Barnes is the mayor of Bayou La Batre, a small fishing village in the southwest corner of Alabama, near the Gulf Coast and the Mississippi border.

We’re headed to Fisherman’s Marine, a fuel dock two streets over from City Hall.

AUDIO: Watch where you step…

Two decades ago, this dock would have been overflowing with fishermen and shrimpers waiting to get their boats refueled.

BROWN: Tell me about the good days.

MORRISON: Good days, whew! Wide open everyday…

Meaning they were fueling boats all day long. Dennis Morrison is the fuel dock manager.

MORRISION: Now, sometimes we lucky to get one boat every two days.

SOUND: [Boat shifting]

Morrison smiles as he watches Richard “Buddy” Brockley and his son Buddy Jr, parallel park their 90-foot shrimp boat, the Lady Catherine.

AUDIO: You want me to go down and catch the line. Yeah, that’s fine…

It’ll cost the multi-generational shrimpers a pretty penny to fill her up.

BROWN: So how much will you pay today?

BUDDY JR.: It’s going to be right at 21-thousand dollars for 9-thousand gallons of fuel.

That will give them about 30 days on the Gulf. They’re counting on President Trump to follow through on his executive order to slap double digit tariffs on countries importing shrimp to the United States. Last year, more than 90 percent of shrimp consumed in this country came from India, Ecuador, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Since 2021 the price of imported shrimp has dropped significantly. Buddy Jr says that drastically cuts the market value of his catch.

BUDDY JR.: The last three years have been a windfall as far as the amount of shrimp being caught, but as far as their value. It’s been toe-stumping. You went from getting five dollars a pound for a 36, 40 count tail to two dollars a pound for it, to a dollar something a pound for it, over the last 15 years or so.

BUDDY SR.: I’ve been running boats since I was 15 years old and I’m 69.

Buddy Sr. gets angry when he thinks about the variety of shrimp he believes many Americans are missing out on because of cheap imports.

BUDDY SR.: We got pink shrimp, we got Royal Reds, we got East Coast white shrimp, we got hoppers, we got brownies. They all got a little different distinguishing taste. And there’s nothing wrong with none of them. But the American people have never been introduced to it because they’ve had this stuff…junk thrown on their tables and they don’t know no difference!

Heading back to City Hall, Mayor Barnes says he reached out to President Trump months before he signed that executive order to restore the American seafood industry.

BARNES: I wrote him a letter in November and explained the situation and invited him to come down and look at our industry.

No response yet on that offer. Barnes says in the meantime…

BARNES: I totally believe in prayer. I mean, I pray every night for our city.

Alright, let’s grab some materials and walk up….you want to tote that wire?

About an hour east of Bayou La Batre, a four-man electrical crew carries cable up a flight of stairs.

JONES: They just put in drop ceilings this week. So we’re coming in to put some lights in.

That’s Jake Jones, owner of AGW Electric. He comes from a long line of electricians.

JONES: So my dad is an electrician. Both of my grandpa’s were electricians. My uncles, electricians. My mom was actually an electrical helper.

SOUND: [Beep!]

JONES: …ok it got power

Jones says copper is to him what shrimp is to the fishermen in Bayou La Batre.

BROWN: What’s this? This is what’s called M-C Cable. This is our wire. Does copper play a role in this at all?

JONES: Yeah, the wiring inside here…that’s copper.

Currently there are no specific tariffs or quotas on copper imports. But that could change. Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order directing the Secretary of Commerce to investigate what he called a national security threat to the copper supply. The United States produces only half of the refined copper it consumes. That makes us reliant on foreign suppliers. If the investigation concludes imports threaten national security, the president could impose new tariffs and quotas on copper imports, making the goods more expensive for people like Jones.

JONES: If those prices go up by a substantial amount, anybody in this industry is not going to absorb that themselves. It’s going to roll down to the customer. So you still have to be competitive to be able to get work. Because there’s a lot of competition in my field. If it costs me more to purchase the materials, then ultimately it’s going to cost the consumer more to get it installed.

SOUND: [Wire pulling]

Jones admits, that’s troubling. Even so, he’s trying to keep an open mind about tariffs.

JONES: I think that if it does what it’s supposed to do, I believe we’ll have a lot more American made products that are sold by Americans, to Americans in America, which keeps the money here, keeps the economy going. I just don’t know how dark it’s possibly going to get before that happens.

But he says he knows Someone who does.

JONES: Even if prices go through the roof, whether they do or don’t, my faith is always in God. He is going to take care of His children.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Myrna Brown in Bayou La Batre and Daphne Alabama.

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