• Bill Yeargin, the CEO of US boat manufacturer Correct Craft, warned about the consequences of Trump's trade fights in an op-ed on Monday.
• "We have found ourselves in the crosshairs of a trade war, one that will drown out the effects of tax reform and risk our industry's promising future, taking American workers and consumers down with it," Yeargin wrote.
• The CEO also laid out the three big reasons that Trump's tariffs hurt US businesses.

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President Donald Trump's tariffs are hitting US businesses with a triple whammy, according to one manufacturing CEO.

Bill Yeargin, the CEO of US boat manufacturer Correct Craft, laid out in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner how harmful Trump's recent tariffs are for both his own company and the US economy as a whole.

Yeargin's firm builds a slew of popular boat brands, such as the specialty ski brand Nautique. Correct Craft employs more than 1,300 American workers and has six manufacturing plants around the US, but despite the homegrown nature of the business, Trump's tariffs are taking a toll.

The Correct Craft CEO said Trump's trade fights are leading to higher costs and threaten boat sales. In fact, Yeargin said the tariffs pose an existential threat to the US boat manufacturing industry.

"We have found ourselves in the crosshairs of a trade war, one that will drown out the effects of tax reform and risk our industry's promising future, taking American workers and consumers down with it," he wrote.

In laying out the threat the trade war poses, Yeargin identified the three ways that Trump's trade fights are contributing to pain for US manufacturers:

Yeargin says Trump's trade policies will come back to bite the US

Correct Craft can respond to combination of these three factors in a few different ways. The company can lay off workers to bring down labor costs, increase prices on consumers, or move its manufacturing outside of the US to a country not facing tariffs (similar to Harley-Davidson's decision).

Given these worrying options Correct Craft faces, Yeargin concluded that Trump's trade policies will ultimately come back to bite the US.

"Many Americans are understandably tired of longstanding and unfair trade agreements, and President Trump should be applauded for concentrating the world's attention on the issue," the Correct Craft CEO wrote. "However, his administration's current trade policies of increasing protectionism are unfairly targeting US manufacturing industries, and will cause lasting damage to US businesses, jobs, and families."

The problems aren't just limited to boat manufacturers. American firms that produce everything from TVs to nails to lobster traps are dealing with similar cost pressures.

The cost increases are already forcing these firms to make tough choices. Some US businesses have had to lay off workers, while others are raising prices on consumers to handle the hit.

Regardless of how these companies are managing, it's clear that Trump's trade fights are taking a toll on American business.