They are among a dozen business owners and managers who spoke with Reuters about the impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariff regime, providing an early idea of what many more Americans might expect, even as taxes on imports - paid by U.S. companies and often passed on to consumers - were partially paused for 90 days this week.
“We’re constantly dealing with the uncertainty of the future and of our future supply chains,“ said Steve Shriver, the founder and CEO of Eco Lips, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based company that makes organic health and beauty products with ingredients sourced from more than 50 countries and sold in 40,000 stores nationwide. It has annual sales of around $30 million.
“I don’t trust it. It’s a 90-day pause. It could change again in 10 days,“ Shriver said. “There are still 10% tariffs across the board, and that’s a substantial addition to our prices.”
Other business people said they have canceled purchase orders, halted expansion plans and delayed hiring.
Shriver and others said they have received price-increase notifications from suppliers and have already raised their own prices since Trump first started announcing tariffs last month to address what he said were unfair trade imbalances. Trump also has imposed tariffs in pursuit of goals that include keeping out migrants and illegal drugs and encouraging domestic manufacturing.
“The tariffs on China are simply unworkable, it’s a serious threat to our business,“ said Kusler, standing amid a sea of colorful kites, Frisbees, puppets, stuffed animals and every other toy imaginable. “We pay bills weekly. These price increases are happening now for items I already have in the door.”
Kusler thinks he can absorb around 3% of increased costs. He added that he has already seen and will continue to feel suppressed consumer demand amid economic turbulence.
Emily Ley, the owner of Simplified, a Pensacola, Florida-based company that specializes in high-end office planners for women, said that since Trump announced tariffs on Chinese goods in 2017 during his first term, she has paid well over $1 million in trade taxes to the U.S. government.
Ley said she tried for years to have her goods manufactured in the U.S., but could find no way to do it and still make a profit.
One thing Ley is doing: suing the U.S. government, arguing the taxes unconstitutionally rely on statutes that have nothing to do with tariffs.
The Newman Center considered chairs from two U.S. suppliers and one in Canada. One of the American makers was far over their budget and the other’s chairs required the use of harsh dry-cleaning solvents as maintenance. In early 2024, Ahmad-Post ordered chairs from Montreal-based Ducharme for just over $560,000 and blacked out a six-week period of hosting any shows for installation in mid-July.
At the time, those tariffs for Canada were at 25% - an increase in $140,000 for the Newman Center seat project, an unwelcome development for an institution still trying to rebuild its rainy day fund that was depleted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The chairs are already in production, it’s not like we can just pivot,“ Ahmad-Post said. “Now we’re stuck trying to figure out how we’ll pay for this.”
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( That seat will cost how much? US businesses already seeing impact of Trump tariffs )
Also on site :