ICYMI: Majority Of Quad-City Businesses Say Tariffs Hurt Them, U.S. Economy
DES MOINES – As Iowa businesses deal with an economy that has been ranked worst in the nation, a majority of business owners in the Quad-Cities agree that Republicans’ tariffs are bad for business. 61% of businesses said that the tariffs harmed their business, and 78% percent believed that the tariffs hurt the U.S. economy at large.
The Chamber report also found that 35% of owners altered their company’s business decisions because of the tariffs.
Billy Polly, the senior director of business and intelligence for the Quad-Cities Chamber said trade exports make up about 15 percent of the Quad-Cities economy compared to 11 percent of the U.S. economy.
More from the QuadCity Times:
- “The difference between 15% and 11% maybe doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but is really significant,” Polly said.
- In many measures, the Quad-Cities is typically ranked somewhere around 150 out of the 380 metro areas due to its population.
- “But in trade, we are way above that, and that means that things like the tariff announcements that came out in April and the effects of those tariffs matter a lot more for the Quad-Cities than they might matter for other parts of the country,” Polly said.
Around 1,000 manufacturing jobs were cut in the Quad Cities in 2025 – including hundreds of John Deere workers – which continues to be a devastating blow for Iowa workers.
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