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Former President Donald Trump says that if elected in November, he'll expand the trade tariffs that he imposed during his presidency. This has caused some concern in North Carolina, a swing state in the election with an economy that depends on global trade. Paul Garber of member station WFDD in Winston-Salem, N.C., reports.

PAUL GARBER, BYLINE: When he talks about tariffs, Donald Trump may be vague on specifics, but his intent is clear. He wants to punish countries like China that he says give their companies an unfair advantage.

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DONALD TRUMP: We're going to use tariffs to take advantage of our great strength and to frankly hurt countries that are hurting us and have been hurting us on trade for many, many years.

GARBER: That's a line from his recent appearance in North Carolina's deeply red Randolph County. The area is poised for a manufacturing boom with the addition of a Toyota electric vehicle battery plant and other new factories planned nearby. Skyler Jon Nelson attended the rally, and he likes the idea of tariffs to boost domestic production.

SKYLAR JON NELSON: If you look at, like, just buying knickknacks and little things, almost every one of those things says made in China. You know, I wonder how many things in China say made in America.

GARBER: But many in North Carolina, including Republicans, worry about potential downsides. Tariffs are taxes that governments charge on imports. That can raise prices for shoppers here in the U.S. It can also lead to retaliation from other countries, who often slap tariffs of their own on U.S. exports. Even so, the Biden administration has stuck with them. Vice President Kamala Harris stand on existing tariffs is unclear, but she says, Trump's plans would raise prices. Republican Dale Folwell is the state treasurer. He's proud that North Carolina has been a top destination for new businesses in recent years. He told NPR anything that could interfere with that trend should be fully vetted.

DALE FOLWELL: Things like tariffs are not something that should just be bandied around in anyone's political speech. It has to be carefully thought out because no one ever wins a war, especially a tariff war.

GARBER: Someone else calling for a measured approach is Andy Counts. He's CEO of the American Home Furnishings Alliance in High Point, N.C., a trade association for the state's large furniture industry. He says tariffs can help companies that make and sell in the United States. But some U.S. companies with factories in China had to move them to other parts of Asia after Trump's tariffs hit. Counts worries about new tariffs now.

ANDY COUNTS: It would have a huge impact if Trump were to be elected and take those tariffs into Vietnam and other countries as a result of those supply chains being moved.

GARBER: Layna Mosley is a political economist who spent most of the Trump administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She's now at Princeton. She considers tariffs bad policy.

LAYNA MOSLEY: You do something to protect your economy, and your trade partners respond by doing the same thing. It kind of gets us into a world in which everyone's got higher trade barriers, but nobody's really better off.

GARBER: She says that could be especially hard on North Carolina industries like pork, tobacco and pharmaceuticals.

MOSLEY: My sense is that we get better outcomes for everyone if countries try to work together to solve those problems, as opposed to taking the kind of unilateral imposing tariffs on your trading partners.

GARBER: Back in North Carolina, Folwell, the state treasurer, wants a level playing field for North Carolina products, but he worries about unintended consequences of tariffs.

FOLWELL: There's always a benefit in companies in North Carolina being able to operate in a state that has a low cost place to live and do business. When we have things nationally like tariffs go on, it can have a potential of offsetting some of the good things that we've done in our state.

GARBER: North Carolina is considered to be a key swing state in the coming election. Trump won the state in 2020 with fewer than 2% of the vote.

For NPR News, I'm Paul Garber in Winston-Salem. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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