U.S. manufacturing contracted for a sixth straight month in August as factories dealt with the fallout from the Trump administration's import tariffs, with some manufacturers describing the current business environment as "much worse than the Great Recession." The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey on Tuesday also showed some manufacturers complaining that the sweeping import duties were making it difficult to manufacture goods in the United States. President Donald Trump has defended his protectionist trade policy, which has raised the nation's average tariff rate to the highest in a century, as necessary to revive a long-declining U.S. industrial base.