A great overview is provided This report is out today -I think the title underestimates the situation facing Wisconsin.
Manufacturing and agriculture play a major role in Wisconsin’s economy, making exports essential. However, since the mid-2010s, the value of these exports has declined both across the state and in the Milwaukee region, Wisconsin’s top export region. Now, the newly enacted US tariffs have sparked retaliatory actions by several major trading partners, and 2025 has been a bumpy ride so far for many Wisconsin businesses and farmers.
As shown in the graph below, Wisconsin never actually recovered from the first Trump trade war that began in April/May 2018 with actual export conditions.
From my own perspective, Wisconsin will suffer as a heavily trade-dependent nation as a medium-industry and as a trade-dependent nation, as it would have been after the tariffs of 2018.
A comparison with the 2018 trade war would be misleading. They haven’t even seen effective tariffs being implemented on data up to March. The “Day of Liberation” was April… And here is the uncertainty of trade policy (measured by Baker, Bloom and Davis):
Trade policy uncertainty in March seen during the 2018-19 trade war.
