President Donald Trump on Wednesday paused a large part of his sweeping tariff plan, but Canadian steel and aluminum levies that remain in place will cause the cost of fire trucks for Maine departments to spike.
An Aroostook County business that manufactures and sells fire trucks to departments in Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire said each truck will cost $80,000 to $90,000 more under the 25 percent tariffs. The price hikes will hit small fire departments in several rural towns here in an example of the far-reaching effects on a tightly knit cross-border economy.
“The volatility is just completely untenable,” Bryan McLellan, chief of Surry’s volunteer fire department, said Thursday.
K&T Fire Equipment, a family-owned business in Island Falls that builds trucks, has contracts to deliver them to fire departments in Surry, Allagash, Somerville, Sullivan, Newfield and Lamoine. McLellan’s 18-member department in the coastal Hancock County town ordered a new fire engine three years ago to replace its engine from 1985.
K&T is set to deliver it this fall, which McLellan noted to describe the time that goes into ordering and budgeting. Surry could not cover tens of thousands of extra dollars added onto buying a $300,000 fire chassis as a result of the steel and aluminum tariffs, McLellan added.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who opposes Trump’s Canada tariffs, sent a letter Monday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to explain what K&T Fire Equipment told her about added costs and to request they exempt items that were under contract before Trump’s Feb. 10 steel and aluminum tariffs announcement.
“It is impossible for fire departments in rural northern New England to afford to cover the added cost of tariffs, especially given that the cost of each truck has [been] predetermined at a contracted price,” Collins wrote.
After a stock market meltdown, Trump backed off Wednesday on his “reciprocal” tariffs on most nations for 90 days while raising Chinese import duties to 145 percent. His 25 percent tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and other imports as well as across-the-board 10 percent tariffs reportedly remain in place, although the president can change them on a whim.
U.S. Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, and U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat from Maine’s 1st District, have also opposed Trump’s Canada tariff plans, while U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat from the pro-Trump 2nd District, backs the policies.
K&T Fire Equipment Owner Tom York did not respond Thursday to a request for comment, but Collins’ letter explained how the business begins assembly in Maine by attaching fire apparatuses to truck chassis before sending the trucks to a metal fabricator in Centreville, New Brunswick, to complete assembly.
McLellan also noted further challenges for his department, including cuts to fire training resources under the Federal Emergency Management Agency and how many low-cost parts are made in China.
“It’s going to be years before we solve this infrastructure problem,” the chief said. “Sooner or later, we’re just not going to have equipment.”
