美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump's Tariffs Worry A Small Steel City In Pennsylvania

 

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

We're going to visit a small town in Western Pennsylvania now that's worried about losing steel jobs. Several hundred people work for NLMK in Farrell, Penn. This is a Russian-owned steel mill that uses Russian steel, and so it's being hit by a 25 percent tariff¹. This mill is in an area that backed President Trump². And so its fate really speaks to the complicated politics around the president's trade policies. Here's NPR political correspondent Asma Khalid.

ASMA KHALID, BYLINE³: Dan Moore is one of those guys who voted for President Obama in 2008 and 2012. But he became enamored with Donald Trump's promise to bring back jobs and renegotiate trade deals.

DAN MOORE: Right now there's a pretty fair amount of uncertainty⁴ with the steel tariffs⁵.

KHALID: I meet Moore near the entrance to the NLMK steel mill about an hour before he's got to get to work inside. He's wearing a Donald Trump hat, a souvenir he picked up at the inauguration⁶. He gives the president an A-plus on a lot of things, but he's not so sure about tariffs.

MOORE: Tariffs are - they may help some people, but they're going to hurt a lot of people, too. I don't know exactly how you balance that.

KHALID: NLMK, where he works, depends on steel from Russia. And it wants to import 3 million tons a year.

MOORE: It's kind of like - OK, well, we need tariffs. But when it starts to impact the company where you work for, now you're like, whoa. Wait a minute. Time out. (Laughter) Let's take a closer look at this.

KHALID: Do you at all regret your vote?

MOORE: No, I don't regret my vote 'cause I certainly think President Trump was the better candidate.

KHALID: Plus, he thinks the president is receptive to feedback.

MOORE: I have plans to write a letter to President Trump or maybe a personal phone call.

KHALID: Moore says, if he can get the president's ear, maybe he could convince him to give NLMK an exemption⁷. The company officially applied⁸ for an exemption with the Commerce Department in March, but that application is still pending⁹.

Moore says he thought tariffs would help the country. But now he's just nervous about his own future.

MOORE: You know, every day, I have to try to stay focused on my job. But you have that question in your mind - how much longer do I have before I get my pink slip?

KHALID: As we walk, we pass boarded-up storefronts and dilapidated houses. Up the road from NLMK, I meet Farrell's city manager, Michael Ceci. He sounds glum¹⁰. He says he doesn't know if the company can stay in business with a 25 percent steel tariff. And if it doesn't, that would crush the city financially.

MICHAEL CECI: I would - not figuratively but literally¹¹...

(SOUNDBITE OF KEYS CLINKING)

CECI: ...Leave the keys on the desk. The lights will get turned off, and the power doesn't get paid. And that's it.

KHALID: Ceci says a quarter of the city's revenue comes directly from an NLMK through property taxes and income taxes. And he is frustrated¹² because Farrell has had a hard time, and now life in this city finally seemed to be getting a tad better with NLMK.

CECI: We've gotten 700 great jobs, high-paying jobs at this mill. It's really helping¹³. It's a spark of life. And now you're going to change the rules again and make us start over again.

KHALID: NLMK's argument is that it can't find enough steel to work with in the U.S. So it imports it from Russia to produce coils in Pennsylvania. But it's an argument that's up for debate. Tariff supporters say it's true. Maybe right now there is not enough domestic steel, but that's changing precisely¹⁴ because of the tariffs. And critics are skeptical¹⁵ NLMK would really shut down. They say the company is exaggerating the supply problems because it wants to continue buying cheaper steel from Russia. In a statement to NPR, the company strongly denied it's doing this. The Commerce Department will ultimately decide who's right.

Bill Almashy, though, who also works at the mill, just hopes he doesn't lose his job.

BILL ALMASHY: If it would go down because they don't get the exemption, this will be the third steel mill I've closed.

KHALID: I meet Almashy in a park with his daughter. He tells me he's worked at two other mills. One went bankrupt. The other moved most of its jobs to Mexico. Along the way, he lost his home, his pension and his 401(k).

ALMASHY: A lot of steel in America is gone. Basically, our politicians failed us.

KHALID: Almashy says Americans need to get back to buying American products. And so when he first heard about President Trump's tariffs, he liked the idea. He told me he still does. But he doesn't understand why his company should get punished for importing steel.

ALMASHY: Even if they're foreign-owned but they have a factory in this country and they're employing American workers, to me, that's an American company.

KHALID: To Almashy, exempting¹⁶ this Russian-owned steel mill from the tariffs would be putting America first.

Asma Khalid, NPR News, Farrell, Penn.

1 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

5 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

6 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

7 exemption   

n.豁免，免税额，免除

参考例句：

• You may be able to apply for exemption from local taxes.你可能符合资格申请免除地方税。
• These goods are subject to exemption from tax.这些货物可以免税。

8 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

9 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

10 glum   

adj.闷闷不乐的，阴郁的

参考例句：

• He was a charming mixture of glum and glee.他是一个很有魅力的人，时而忧伤时而欢笑。
• She laughed at his glum face.她嘲笑他闷闷不乐的脸。

11 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

12 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

14 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

15 skeptical   

adj.怀疑的，多疑的

参考例句：

• Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
• Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。

16 exempting   

使免除[豁免]( exempt的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• EPA adopted regulations exempting discharges from agricultural activities, with certain exceptions for relatively major pollution sources. 环境保护局采用管制规章，禁止源自农业活动的各种排放，对于一些相关的大型污染源也有例外。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法