An Alabama defense contractor has ended up on a new short list of export bans from China as the country strengthens its restrictions amid the United States’ burgeoning trade war.

Huntsville’s Teledyne Brown Engineering is facing new restrictions on receiving dual-use items from China, or goods that can be used for both civilian and military purposes, the country’s Ministry of Commerce announced Wednesday. As the Trump administration’s trade war heats up, China is fighting back with bans on trade with U.S. companies, citing national security concerns.

A company spokesperson for Teledyne did not immediately respond to a request by AL.com for comment.

The tech firm, based in Huntsville’s Cummings Research Park, helped develop the Redstone Rocket and has been involved in major U.S. space launch initiatives and ballistic missile defense programs. It was founded as Alabama Engineering and Tool in 1953, according to Teledyne’s website.

In December, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs named Teledyne as a target for countermeasures for alleged involvement in arms sales to Taiwan, stating plans to freeze the company’s assets within China.

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it is raising tariffs on Chinese imports up to 145% – up from 125% the day before. It’s expected to have ripple effects on the economy, including for U.S. businesses that have a Chinese market and hiking prices for consumers who buy goods made in China.

Earlier this week China also had announced it would impose an 84% tax on all U.S. imports.

And that means more Alabama workers and businesses feel the heat. More than 15,000 Alabama workers whose jobs rely on goods exported from the United States to China could be impacted by the Trump administration’s trade war, according to a recent report.

That figure makes up a 1.6% share of the more than 930,000 jobs that rely on exports to China in the United States, according to a 2024 report from the US-China Business Council which analyzed the most recent data from 2022. China ranks No. 3, behind Canada and Mexico, for countries with the most U.S. goods exports, accepting $145 billion in goods in 2023, per the report.

And in Alabama, China is also the third largest destination for U.S. exports, reaching $4.1 billion in 2024, according to a recent report from the Alabama Department of Commerce. That’s up 11% from the previous year. The country is also a top destination for motor vehicles, Alabama’s top export product.

Nationally, most of the country’s jobs that depend on U.S. exports are in the agriculture and livestock industry, per the report. Oilseeds and grains – which includes crops like corn, soybeans and wheat – are the United States’ top export to China, followed by oil and gas.

Bradley Byrne, the president and CEO of the Mobile Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber has been in touch with a slew of local businesses in the region about their concerns over tariffs in the last week.

“While there’s a lot of concern, a lot of anxiety, everybody’s sort of waiting to see what exactly is going to happen,” he said. “But this time, the tariffs are so much bigger.”

He said that businesses that use international parts and components in their products are especially at risk.

“145% tariff, you can’t swallow that cost if you’re an importer,” he said. “It’s going to pose a real problem for anybody that’s got to use a part or component from China in the production of their goods.”

But George Munchus, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Collat School of Business who teaches international business courses, said he wasn’t too worried about long-standing impacts to the state.

“I think the current trade war will be very good for Alabama,” Munchus said in an email to AL.com. “There is no reason Alabama cannot double the $3.5 billion invested in 2025 if we are strategic with those countries and business[es] that have already invested in our state. What can we do to help them stay competitive and invest more and do more capital projects?”

China is no stranger to investing in Alabama’s economy. In 2024, Alabama credited China in its New and Expanding Industry Announcements report as a top country for economic investment in the state.

Chinese company Kaishan Group’s U.S.-based subsidiary, Kaishan Compressor (USA) LLC, expanded its project in Baldwin County last year, investing $16.4 million and creating 50 jobs. The six-year-old manufacturing facility in Loxley makes industrial air compressors.

Byrne added that the chamber recently reached out to Continental Aerospace Technologies, a general aviation and engine part manufacturer in Mobile that’s owned by a Chinese state-owned parent company, Aviation Industry Corporation of China.

“They said they source their stuff almost all from the United States, so they’re not as worried,” he said. “We wake up everyday and it’s a new day, so it’s really hard to make decisions and it’s caused a great deal of anxiety for businesses all over the country. But this won’t last forever.”