By Ethan Hartley
International trade tariffs can seem like a distant issue far removed from the day-to-day operations of local companies. But a visit from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse to one of East Providence’s largest manufacturing companies last week revealed how the economic policies initiated by the Trump Administration are having very real impacts on American businesses; even right here in Rhode Island.
“What this company demonstrates is that there are areas in which the tariff policy backfires against American manufacturing,” Whitehouse said following his tour of igus, a German international manufacturing company whose U.S. operations include 750,000 square feet of space throughout multiple facilities in East Providence. “And unfortunately, this Rhode Island company is facing that p