Tupelo, Mississippi, renowned as Elvis Presley's birthplace, hosts a museum that attracts over 100,000 visitors annually. However, the city has diversified beyond its musical heritage, now featuring a thriving industrial park. With a significant presence of international companies, including Toyota, the economic revival follows the decline of the furniture industry in the 1990s. Currently, one in five jobs in the region is manufacturing-related. Local leaders express concerns about how potential changes in trade policies could affect this growth amid global economic uncertainties.
"Welcome to Elvis Presley's birth house," says docent Carolyn Parson, as you step inside a tiny two-room shotgun house on the east side of town. "It means that if you open the front door and you open the back door, you could theoretically or literally shoot a shotgun clean through the house," she explains. "And Elvis was born in this room."
Most of us just think of Elvis - which is not a bad thing - but there's so much more," says David Rumbarger, CEO of the Community Development Foundation, an economic development group in Tupelo. He drives to a sprawling industrial park..."
Now with a more diverse mix, one in five jobs is in manufacturing. The question is whether Trump's plan for higher tariffs will shake things up. "You know business likes a stable environment, so uncertainty does cause a little bit of pain," says Rumbarger.
Most companies, including Toyota, are now considering the cost of sourcing the parts they get from overseas, and figuring out how to be resilient in a rapidly shifting environment."
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