Montana’s export story rarely makes the front page, yet it fuels more local paychecks than most people realize. In 2024, Big Sky Country shipped $2.4 billion in goods abroad, an amount equal to 3.2 percent of state GDP and supporting about 9,000 jobs from Kalispell fabrication bays to Billings rail yards.
Those dollars circulate through every corner café and feed store, so the details of federal trade legislation matter here more than in cities where Fortune 500 headquarters dominate the skyline.
A quiet clause in the sprawling “One Big Beautiful Bill” aimed to strip important incentives from farmers in the agricultural sector. Special interests have been trying to weaken Duty Drawback provisions so that farmers of certain crops would suffer. If Congress can carve one crop out of a 235-year-old program, the next lobbyist will target timber, or refined metals, or advanced composites. That is how an obscure footnote becomes a statewide tax hike.
Since the first tariff act drafted under Alexander Hamilton, duty drawback has refunded import duties on parts, raw materials, and feedstocks that leave the United States inside finished exports. The concept is simple: do not tax something twice if it never stays in the domestic economy. A mill in the Flathead Valley can import a component that is unavailable from any U.S. supplier, integrate it into a high-altitude pump, and ship the finished unit to a mine in another country. After filing paperwork that proves export, the company gets its duty back. That rebate prevents a hidden tariff from tilting the playing field toward foreign competitors.
The beneficiaries in Montana are diverse: a specialty silicon facility in Butte, a refinery near the Yellowstone River, a sawmill in Lincoln County, and a photonics operation in Bozeman. None of these enterprises are household brands, yet together they anchor local tax rolls and apprenticeship programs. They count on duty drawback to keep bids competitive when overseas buyers compare U.S. quotes with offers from Canada or Mexico where duty refunds process automatically.
Eliminating duty drawback would evaporate margins overnight. Kiln upgrades in the timber sector would be postponed, expansion of high-tech labs would move to free-trade zones abroad, and some firms would shift final assembly closer to customers simply to avoid paying U.S. duties twice. Rural counties would feel the sting first. Overtime disappears; school levies stagnate; property values slip as suppliers scale back. Once those high-skill roles exit the state, recruiting them back is far harder than keeping them here in the first place.
The Senate’s draft of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” already struck the repeal language, but we can’t let our guard down. Congress must send the White House a bill free of poison pills and make sure President Trump protects duty drawback. Montana’s delegation, especially members on the Finance and Appropriations committees, should draw a bright red line: protect duty drawback. That stance aligns perfectly with Montana’s tradition of open markets and level playing fields.
Duty drawback is not an obscure relic; it is a linchpin that lets rural ingenuity reach global customers. Remove it for one industry, and Montana’s emerging tech, energy, and timber clusters could also be at risk, and potentially watch supply chains run around the state rather than through it. Leave duty drawback intact for all industries, and Montanans will keep turning mountain grit into world-class products that carry the Made-in-Montana label across the world.
Sen. Mark Noland, R-Bigfork, served as the Chair of the Senate Business and Labor Committee for the 2025 Montana Legislature, and now serves on the Economic Affairs interim committee.