Delaware

Delaware's compact economy belies outsized trade exposure concentrated in chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The state's chemical industry — rooted in DuPont's 200-year legacy and now fragmented into Chemours, Corteva, and IFF — exports specialty chemicals, fluoropolymers, and crop science products worldwide. Tariffs on Chinese chemical imports raise costs for Delaware manufacturers, while retaliatory measures threaten their export markets. The Port of Wilmington, the nation's top banana port, handles massive volumes of imported fruit, juice concentrate, and consumer goods — all now more expensive. Delaware's poultry industry on the Delmarva Peninsula (shared with Maryland and Virginia) faces the same retaliatory targeting as other eastern poultry states. As a corporate domicile state, Delaware also suffers indirectly: tariff uncertainty suppresses the M&A and IPO activity that feeds its franchise tax revenue and legal services economy. The pharmaceutical presence — AstraZeneca's US headquarters in Wilmington — faces tariffs on imported active ingredients while navigating retaliatory threats to drug exports.