Tariffs on Canada and Mexico will have a real, devastating impact on American businesses of all sizes, as well as on workers and consumers. The 25% tariffs on most goods from two of the top U.S. trading partners are creating uncertainty and financial strain, particularly for businesses that rely on imported materials.
What they’re saying: Business owners worry about the tariffs’ immediate and damaging effects to their operations.
- Traci Tapani, Vice-Chair of the U.S. Chamber’s Small Business Council and co-president of Wyoming Machine, a sheet metal fabricator in Minnesota, said, "My company will feel an immediate, detrimental impact as a result of these tariffs. The threats and uncertainty have made it hard to make business decisions, and these kinds of tariffs will make it extremely difficult for small businesses like mine to grow."
- Bill Baburek, owner of Crescent Moon in Omaha, Nebraska, told a local news outlet that even the threat of tariffs affected his supply chain: "Ever since the announcement there was going to be tariffs on Mexico and Canada, we saw prices on all materials, including domestic materials, start to increase."
- “[Lumber] has already been getting more expensive over the past few years due to supply chain shocks and wildfires, and a huge proportion of our lumber comes from Canada,” said Bar Zakheim, Owner of Better Place Design & Build in San Diego, California, to the Baltimore Sun. “These tariffs are going to make everything we do considerably more expensive at a time when the high-priced housing market and high interest rates are already cutting into our bottom line.”
Why it matters: More than 41 million American jobs depend on trade, and 97% of the American companies that export are small and medium-sized businesses. See how your state benefits from trade with this interactive map.
Our take: “American families and businesses are struggling with high costs. It’s one of the top issues that they want policymakers to address,” said U.S. Chamber Executive Vice President Neil Bradley.
- “The Chamber supports the administration’s efforts to advance pro-growth policies like fewer regulations and less taxation that will grow our economy and expand opportunity; and to fix serious problems like our broken border and stopping the flow of fentanyl in this country. We also want to work together to keep costs down, but tariffs will only raise prices and increase the economic pain being felt by everyday Americans across the country.”
Learn more:
Tariffs on Imports Rocking Small Businesses as They Scramble to Adapt