MON AM News: State imports hit $38.9B in 2024, WPF report shows; Revenue Secretary Casey says evaluating tariffs’ impact on revenue ‘very difficult’

May 19, 2025

— Businesses and consumers in the state bought $38.9 billion in imported goods last year, a decline from the recent peak of $43.9 billion in 2022.

That’s according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum’s latest report, which shows the inflation-adjusted value of state imports has risen 32.4% since 2016.

As Wisconsin imports have been rising in recent years, exports have seen a decline, leading to a trade imbalance for the state. From 2012 to 2016, the state exported about $30 billion in goods annually while importing about the same amount each year.

But by last year, state exports of physical goods had dipped to $27.5 billion, meaning imports exceeded exports by $11.4 billion. WPF says factors leading to this change could include shifts in industrial bases and natural resources, currency values, savings rates and more.

“A trade imbalance is not necessarily good or bad, just as borrowing is not necessarily good or bad,” authors wrote. “Ultimately, it depends on the larger circumstances.”

Industrial and electrical machinery are the two largest categories for Wisconsin imports, with $8.2 billion and $4.9 billion in 2024, respectively. Those are followed closely by pharmaceutical products at $4.7 billion.

WPF notes industrial and electrical machinery are also the top two categories for state exports, showing that businesses in the state are buying crucial equipment needed to build other machines for domestic and international markets.

“This shows the vital connection between the state’s import and export activities,” authors wrote.

While China, Canada and Mexico remain Wisconsin’s top trading partners, import trends from these countries have seen major changes in recent years.

The value of state imports from China have dropped 37.3% between 2018 and 2024, from $10.2 billion to $6.4 billion. Meanwhile, imports from Mexico have “grown dramatically” over the same period, rising 68.6% from $3.5 billion to $5.9 billion. Canadian imports have stayed fairly steady over this time at around $6 billion.

The European Union collectively forms a substantial import market for Wisconsin, with about $10.2 billion in EU goods imported to the state last year. WPF notes Ireland was “somewhat surprisingly” the top European trading partner for Wisconsin last year, and its fourth largest overall with $3.4 billion in imports.

That’s a big change from a decade earlier, when Ireland wasn’t even among the state’s top 35 trading partners. Authors attribute the change to “massive growth” in the Irish pharmaceutical industry, especially vaccines, that has occurred since 2015.

The report references the ongoing uncertainty around the Trump administration’s tariff policy, as the current 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs is set to expire in July.

“The value of imports to Wisconsin has grown over the last decade, but U.S. tariffs may change that trend,” authors wrote. “Though the tariffs are meant to support U.S. manufacturing, they could also spur higher prices and interest rates, limit the availability of certain goods, and slow economic growth.”

See more from the report.

— Department of Revenue Secretary David Casey tells WisPolitics’ “Capitol Chats” podcast it’s “very difficult” to measure the potential impact of widespread tariffs under the Trump administration.

Casey said there’s “a lot of uncertainty” around tariffs.

“When we talk about tariffs, I mean, it can have multiple effects on the economy,” Casey said. “It can have inflationary effects by increasing the cost of goods to the common Wisconsinite, it can also impact our businesses, depending on who our trade partners are and where those tariffs are. It can also give us some advantages. So balancing all of that out and trying to identify specifically what the impacts of tariffs are is very difficult.”

He said DOR is trying to measure the potential impact of tariffs on “a week-to-week basis.”

Casey most recently worked as an expert in tax compliance and fraud for SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina. He served as deputy secretary of the Department of Revenue from 2019 to 2022, and returned when Gov. Tony Evers appointed him to succeed former Secretary Peter Barca last year.

Casey also said one of his biggest priorities in the state budget is to help the middle class and taxpayers who might be hurting right now. He said he also wants to ensure DOR is administering taxes as efficiently and effectively as possible and supporting the new Division of Alcohol Beverages created under a sweeping alcohol regulation bill signed into law last session.

”There are a lot of demands on that division from, well, frankly, from six or 7,000 taverns throughout the state and another 10,000 or so convenience stores,” Casey said. “That places a lot of demands on our agency for the administration of the alcohol laws, so having the resources to do that has been a priority as well.”

Listen to the full podcast episode here.

— Gov. Tony Evers has signed into law a bill to allow Middleton to create a new Tax Increment District to support the biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific.

The TID will enable the company to remain competitive and continue supporting 1,800 jobs in the community, according to Evers’ office.

“Wisconsin is world-renowned for our booming bio-health industry, and I am pleased that, as a state, we could take swift, bipartisan action to support a major employer like Thermo Fisher Scientific and continue to provide family-supporting jobs here in Wisconsin,” Evers said Friday in a statement. “Now more than ever, our work together to ensure companies and communities can remain competitive is critically important for Wisconsin’s continued success, and I’m glad to be signing this bill into law today.”

SB 24, now Wisconsin Act 6, passed unanimously in the Assembly and 32-1 in the Senate, with Sen. Steve Nass, R-Whitewater, in opposition.

— Evers has proposed investing $3.7 million in the state budget to provide farmers with fencing to prevent wolves from killing or injuring livestock, but ag groups say more could be done to address the issue.

Evers’ budget proposes about $3.7 million for non-lethal abatement efforts and monitoring of wolves. The vast majority would go toward helping livestock producers pay for predator-proof fencing. The remaining $25,000 would fund wolf monitoring efforts at the Department of Natural Resources.

Tyler Wenzlaff, national affairs coordinator for the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, told WisPolitics the group appreciates Evers recognizing the “real and ongoing issue.”

“However, while fencing may offer some limited protections in some scenarios, it is not a comprehensive or long-term solution. Wolves are highly mobile predators and it’s been shown that fencing merely pushes the problem onto the next farm,” Wenzlaff said.

Wenzlaff said for many farmers, particularly those with larger pastures, maintaining and installing predator-proof fencing is “impractical.” Wenzlaff also criticized the state’s latest wolf management plan for including Marathon County and a portion of Wood County as part of a secondary range for wolves, an area he said is home to some of the highest cattle populations in the state.

Wisconsin Farmers Union President Darin Von Ruden said Evers’ proposal is “certainly a step in the right direction,” though not all farmers will be able to benefit.

“Some of our members’ farms that have 600, 700 acres that’s about four miles of that fence, and I’m not sure what it costs per foot or per mile to put that fence in, but if you’re going to spread that out over maybe a couple hundred farmers, that 3.7 is certainly going to help some, but not all,” Von Ruden said.

See more at WisPolitics.

— Madison biotech firm Invenra has launched a new platform for developing “trispecific” antibodies used in medical therapies.

The company recently announced its T-Body platform, which comes after Invenra’s earlier bispecific antibody platform called B-Body. Roland Green, the company’s CEO and chairman, says trispecific antibodies “represent a major leap forward in therapeutic design” and the platform can unlock their potential.

“We’re empowering partners to rapidly discover and advance a new class of multispecific therapeutics,” he said in a statement.

Invenra last week presented information on the new platform at the PEGS Boston Protein & Antibody Engineering Summit.

See more at Madison Startups and listen to an earlier podcast with Green.

Top headlines from the Health Care Report…

— Most pediatric patients recently needing surgery or hospitalization at UW Health following bike-related trauma weren’t wearing helmets, the health system says.

UW Health on Friday rolled out figures demonstrating this trend, warning “more and more children will suffer brain injuries or death” if they don’t wear helmets while biking this summer.

Over the last two years, 70% of children coming into the American Family Children’s Hospital emergency department due to a bike accident that were admitted or needed an operation weren’t wearing a helmet. Last year, just 22 of the 62 kids hurt while biking were wearing helmets, while in 2023, it was 15 out of 50.

“We must take this opportunity to teach and make changes to protect our children,” said Dr. Michael Kim, medical director of pediatric emergency medicine for UW Heath Kids.

See the release.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

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