Some small business owners in Detroit are sounding the alarm about higher tariffs hurting their businesses. They say even if they switch to American-made products when possible, those products likely still use foreign materials. That means they’ll still cost more.
Charity Dean is president of the Michigan Black Business Alliance. At a press conference Wednesday, Dean said small businesses can only absorb rising costs from their suppliers for so long.
“Although it is July, and not everyone has passed the cost down, the cost will go to the consumer. We are going into a recession. We will see the impacts of this and it’s going to start with the least of these first unfortunately. It is generally those with the least access that are the most impacted,” Dean said.
The tariffs have been a key point of President Donald Trump’s agenda. He campaigned on raising taxes on imported goods from countries he claimed have higher tariffs on goods from the U.S. than the U.S. has on them.
The Trump administration has already broadly done so. Steeper hikes could come in a little over a week if dozens of countries, including Mexico and Canada -- big trading partners for Michigan and the country -- don’t reach a new trade agreement with the U.S.
Trump negotiated the current trade deal with both countries during his first term in office after criticizing NAFTA, the previous agreement, as outdated.
The president has argued the tariffs are a way to prevent the U.S. from being taken advantage of in foreign trade. At least some of his frequent critics, including UAW President Shawn Fain, were open to or supportive of the idea.
In a February press release, Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI 06) called tariffs, “a tool that should be used to rebalance trade relationships,” but warned, “they must be applied in a way that strengthens manufacturing, without harming the very workers we aim to protect.”
At Thursday’s press conference, organized by the Washington D.C.-based group Tariffs Cost US, the business owners said they feared the tariffs could put a wide range of people in harm’s way.
Jessica Kwalli owns a beauty supply store where she welcomes local partners to set up pop-up shops and showcase their goods. She said those businesses -- and hers -- could be at risk.
“This is actually bigger than me. So, if I’m no longer able to offset the costs and absorb the costs of these tariffs, if I were to go out of business, now that’s five other businesses who, they’re growing their brands through my store,” Kwalli said.
Beyond the trickle-down effect the entrepreneurs said tariffs are having on their communities, they said they were tired of the uncertainty around the policies.
Trump has changed tariff amounts, announced delays, said he’d cancel those delays, and expanded or shrunk their scope.
Rachel Lutz owns a handful of clothing boutiques. She said the tariffs are distracting small businesses from the reasons they open shop.
“We didn’t go into small business to open spreadsheets on different relationships with different countries and what it is this hour, this day, this week, this month. So, here we are just trying to serve our communities, our neighbors, and we’re having to go into international relations as well,” Lutz said.
