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\n On August 1, hundreds of countries will come to learn their fate with the United States, when President Donald Trump\u2019s pause on \u201creciprocal\u201d tariffs ends.\n <\/p>\n
\n Thousands of US businesses will also learn their fates. However, after months of whipsaw trade policy, planning with any sort of certainty has proven near impossible.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll know that I\u2019m out of the chess pieces until I\u2019m right there, but it\u2019s clear that I\u2019m getting closer,\u201d said Sarah Wells, founder of Sarah Wells Bags, designer bags for breast pumps that are imported.\n <\/p>\n
\n Ninety-seven percent of US businesses that import products are small businesses, according to the Commerce Department. Owners have been trying to navigate the complexities of shifting trade policy all while trying to run their businesses, leaving them confused, financially strapped or worse \u2013 forced out of business.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cNot knowing if certain key suppliers will have new trade deals or frameworks at lower or higher tariff rates has made it incredibly difficult for retailers of all sizes to properly plan and forecast what the next buying and selling season will look like,\u201d said Jonathan Gold, the National Retail Federation\u2019s vice president of supply shain and customs policy. \u201cAs a result, consumers may be subject to higher costs as well as less product availability.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Currently, imports from most countries (except China) face a 10% universal tariff. But in the last few weeks, dozens of countries have received warning letters from the Trump administration that they will face higher rates unless they negotiate a deal before August 1. That has run as high as 36% for Cambodia, 40% for Myanmar and 50% for Brazil. To date, seven countries have reached a framework for a trade deal. That includes the US\u2019s largest trading partner, the EU, which agreed Sunday to a 15% levy on most imports.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt feels like it\u2019s chasing me,\u201d Wells said of the tariffs.\n <\/p>\n
\n Wells started to move the production of her bags out of China in February, when Trump kicked off his trade war. Cambodia, with a 10% tariff rate, seemed like a much better deal than the 145%, then later 30%, rate on China.\n <\/p>\n
\n That is, until the Trump administration threatened Cambodia with a 36% tariff this month. That letter came just days before she placed her first $100,000 order with her new manufacturer in Phnom Penh.\n <\/p>\n
![\"Garment](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-2207646097.jpg\")
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\n If the higher tariff on Cambodia sticks, she will be paying more than she was in China.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019ve tried to manufacture in the United States, but I can\u2019t. China, the policies chased me there. Now I am financially invested in Cambodia with the prospect of an incredibly high insurmountable tariff looming this August,\u201d said Wells.\n <\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s not just small businesses \u2013 retailers of all sizes are feeling paralyzed by the on-and-off-again trade war.\n <\/p>\n
\n According to a survey released this month by global accounting firm KPMG, business leaders are pausing investment for up to a year amid tariff uncertainty.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cTariffs are forcing companies to rethink their supply chains and investment timelines, but strategic change takes time. Nearly half of businesses reported it takes 7 to 12 months to implement significant supply chain adjustments, and more than half are already working to reconfigure their supply chains in response,\u201d the survey, which polled 300 US-based business leaders at companies with more than $1 billion in revenue, noted.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cCompanies are just waiting to see how the new playing field will land in order for them to make important decisions, economically,\u201d said Pedro\u202fCasas Alatriste, CEO and executive vice president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico.\n <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/2025-03-27t005732z-1378143485-rc2tjcahfxob-rtrmadp-3-usa-trump-tariffs-gm.jpg\")
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\n The American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico represents 1,500 US-based companies that operate in Mexico, including Apple, Coca-Cola and General Motors. Trump has threatened a 30% tariff on imports from Mexico on August 1.\n <\/p>\n
\n Large corporations can and do advocate behind the scenes in Washington, DC. Meanwhile, small businesses have less power and influence on trade policy\u2014 and are often more vulnerable to the impacts of tariffs.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cMany small and medium-sized companies are literally fighting for their lives. And then there are the other big ones, let\u2019s call it the GMs of the world, that are pursuing a more active strategy in DC, calling out different stakeholders that are capable of influencing President Trump, while at the same time being extremely cautious on how to do this,\u201d said Casas Alatriste.\n <\/p>\n
![\"W\u00f6lffer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/front-of-building-from-the-vines.jpg\")
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\n Even when a trade agreement is announced by Trump, for some companies, the uncertainty still remains.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt is all very uncertain because as we know, he changes his mind or negotiates deals, adds delays. We don\u2019t really know what exactly is coming,\u201d said Max Rohn, CEO of W\u00f6lffer Estate Vineyard.\n <\/p>\n
\n Mid-sized winemaker W\u00f6lffer Estate Vineyard manufactures wine in the farmlands of Long Island, New York. It also imports blends from Germany, France, and Argentina.\n <\/p>\n
\n The winery currently pays tariffs on its wine imports from the EU and Argentina, as well as on glassware, labels and barrels. W\u00f6lffer cannot move its supply chain, and its Long Island vineyard only has a limited amount of acreage to grow grapes.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWith wine, it\u2019s very difficult because champagne is from Champagne, and that\u2019s not a product you can substitute,\u201d said Rohn.\n <\/p>\n
\n But while Sunday\u2019s framework raising tariffs on products from the EU to 15% isn\u2019t \u201cas bad\u201d of the previously threatened 30%, the cost still hurts, according to Rohn.\n <\/p>\n
\n The company is currently rushing in 20,000 cases of wine from Europe to the US before August 1. The vineyard has enough product to sell through the end of the year, but after that, it will have to import next year\u2019s vintage.\n <\/p>\n
![\"W\u00f6lffer](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/vines-7.jpg\")
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\n So far, the vineyard has absorbed the tariff cost and avoided raising prices, which Rohn said would almost certainly deter customers.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are going to take a wait and see regarding raising prices on our European imports. We will try as best as we can to hold off,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cwe know it is still fluid. There are more discussions and deals and changes can always happen.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n For Wells, she is running out of options. She\u2019s already raised prices and is running low on the inventory she has in the United States. Soon, she\u2019ll have no choice but to bring in some of her order from Cambodia at whatever tariff rate is imposed on August 1.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019ve already cut all of those extraneous expenses. I stopped taking any kind of salary in May as the CEO, she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve cut everywhere we can cut. So do we start laying people off to free up a little bit of cash?\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n And in an environment where businesses are competing for every consumer dollar, businesses are turning to one another to try to make sense of how to plan for what comes next.\n <\/p>\n
\n The answer is not always comforting.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s one of those things that it\u2019s out of your control. When I ask around, it\u2019s just a lot of hands in the air. \u2018I don\u2019t know. There\u2019s nothing, what can we do?\u2019\u201d said Rohn.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link New York \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 On August 1, hundreds of countries will come to learn their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-31506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}