Small Business Owners Tell Chamber of Commerce They're 'Terrified' of Tariffs
As the second Trump administration's tariffs begin to bite, small businesses are more vulnerable to price increases and supply shocks than are large companies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce warned the Trump administration at an event celebrating its Small Business Day on May 1.
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Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer at the Chamber, told an audience of small business owners that while larger organizations might have the "leverage and the financial wherewithal" to weather the impacts of tariffs, "small businesses generally don't have that option." Instead, he said, they are being impacted "in real time as they operate." Small businesses are "counting on the ability to pass that cost along to their customers," but sometimes they may have to "simply eat that increase in cost of tariff," he said.
Bradley reiterated the requests the Chamber made in a letter to the Trump administration to create an automatic exemption for companies employing less than 500 people (see 2505010015), and urged listeners to "go on social media" to express their support for the policy proposals.
He noted that most small businesses that export products are also importing goods to make those exports, so these companies "get squeezed from both directions" as they pay U.S. tariff rates and the retaliatory rates that other countries have threatened.
The Chamber also gave a platform to small business owners to voice their concerns about tariffs, one of whom said she was "terrified." Matt Carr, the president of Beck Flavors, said that his business already has implanted a "tariff fee" on their invoices to show customers why prices for his products are increasing.
Rachel Garcia, the owner of Dry Goods Refinery, said that her company doesn't have the ability to "plan out six months ahead" and instead they buy "very close to the window," which is how her business can be successful. She said she is "hopeful" that the Chamber's exclusion efforts are successful, but that "it is scary" to be a small business at this time.