Town hall on tariff effects held at Madonna University’s Welcome Center,in Livonia. Aug. 14, 2025. Left to right: moderator Bill Joyner, NYX Inc. Executive Vice President Dan Laible, AlphaUSA President Chuck Dardas, and U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit). | Photo by Leah Craig/Michigan Advance
As uncertainties around tariffs and trade continue to rise, two business leaders spoke out at a town hall, with Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) facilitating the discussion on the broader impact on manufacturers, consumers, and communities.
“We are hosting this town hall to put a face to the impacts of the reckless imposing of tariffs by the Trump Administration,” said Tlaib. “Tariffs can be used as a tool to level the playing field for workers, consumers, and small businesses in the United States. However, reckless and aggressive methods in which Trump is handling tariffs have manipulated the stock market, making his friends richer, while we suffer here at home with increased costs on families and small businesses.”
Tlaib was joined by leaders from two Livonia-based automotive suppliers: AlphaUSA and NYX Inc. Both companies are centered in the design and development of specialized automotive parts, albeit in different capacities.
Executive Vice President & CFO for NYX Dan Laible was tasked with outlining the current situation, emphasizing the need for “conversations that are fact-based [and] data-driven.”
“There’s just a lot of misinformation out there about this, and a lot of misconceptions out there, as if all of a sudden, this is going to fix all of the particular issues in the last 20 to 30 years of trade policy,” Laible said.
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The best course of action for citizens, he surmised, is to seek out reliable and verifiable sources of information and keep the conversation going.
Laible explained that tariff costs are absorbed by one of three avenues: foreign exporters, American companies, and American consumers. He then referred to a recent assessment from Goldman Sachs that found that 14% of tariffs were paid by foreign exporters, 64% by American companies, and 22% by American consumers.
Furthermore, Goldman economists predicted that around 67% of the tariffs would ultimately be shouldered by U.S. consumers
“Companies can’t continue to absorb that level of additional cost indefinitely, especially when it’s hitting a quarterly loss of $800 billion based on tariffs,” said Laible. “Eventually, that has to be passed down.”
Tlaib clarified that the funds being collected through tariffs are not earmarked for any specific purpose, but are going to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Advocates of tariffs cite trade deficits or imbalances as a rationale. But Laible highlighted that while such imbalances do exist, the context behind them is all too often overlooked.
For example, there is a $62 billion trade imbalance between the United States and Canada. However, this imbalance is due in part to the fact that Canada has a much smaller population than the United States. Additionally, the energy infrastructure put in place—Laible cited the Keystone Pipeline in particular— has exacerbated that imbalance.
One of the primary arguments for tariffs is that they draw consumers to domestic products instead of foreign alternatives. But Laible said the current tariff plan fails to recognize that there are certain items that aren’t produced in the United States.
Coffee, for example, is not produced domestically, and one-third of coffee consumed in the United States is sourced from Brazil, which is now facing a 50% tariff. And while the strain of tariffs haven’t yet made their way to consumers, Laible warns that it’s only a matter of time.
AlphaUSA, which specializes in producing fasteners, nuts, and bolts specific to the automotive industry, must contend with similar constraints.
AlphaUSA has served Livonia and the automotive industry alike for 67 years. However, as President and COO Chuck Dardas outlined in an op-ed for The Detroit News, the current tariff policies have jeopardized the livelihoods of the company and the manufacturing industry as a whole.
At the town hall, Dardas gave the example of the nuts and bolts used in Alpha’s automotive fasteners: some are imported from Canada, others from Ohio, and the parts themselves are manufactured in Taiwan.
In 2018, the Trump Administration levied a 25% tariff on steel. Alpha was unaffected, as certain items– including the nuts and bolts used in their production– were excluded from the tax. Now, those exclusions no longer apply, having been cancelled in March 2025. The initial 25% tariff has become a 50% tariff. Factor in the capacity constraints on the domestic steel industry and things become significantly more complex for companies like Alpha.
“We’ve been triangulated in how this has hit our company,” Dardas told the town hall. “This is all for us buying some nuts from somebody in Mississauga, some from Ohio, and part of these bolts that we’re buying right here in Michigan.”
All in all, the costs for this small, independent business have gone up by around $250,000 per month, or an additional $3,000,000 annually.
Moreover, he added, the rigid quality standards for the automotive industry mean that companies like Alpha can’t afford to cut corners.
“We’re red, white, and blue. We’ve been here forever. We do all the right things. We’re community-focused. We’re not building plants all over the planet,” said Dardas. “We’ve done it right. We’ve played by the rules, and now we’re faced with this Armageddon that we seriously need help with. So I just hope we can resolve this diplomatically and politically before our company runs out of time.”
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