Flushing BID<\/a>, and Peter Tu, executive director of the Flushing Chinese Business Association, also joined Saturday\u2019s tour.<\/p>\nHochul met with owners of several local businesses during the tour, US Supermarket 1, Woodam Restaurant and Prince Optical. Several owners told Hochul that they have faced rising costs since President Donald Trump introduced sweeping tariffs after taking office last year.<\/p>\n
Businesses also detailed how rising immigration enforcement has impacted foot traffic in the neighborhood.
\n![\"Hochul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/walking_27c616.jpg\")
Hochul walks through Flushing with Liu and Richards. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud\n<\/p>\n
Woodam co-owner Chul Kee Ko told Hochul that everything is \u201cgoing high\u201d because of the tariffs during a conversation on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the food costs are going high,\u201d Ko said on Saturday. \u201cIt really hurts. It looks like we are busy and people think \u2018oh this restaurant is busy. It\u2019s making money.\u2019 But at the end of the day, we look at the costs, oh my God.<\/p>\n
\u201cI haven\u2019t taken a day off since last year.\u201d
\n![\"Hochul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Woodam-resturant-1.jpg\")
Hochul meets staff from Woodam. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud\n<\/p>\n
Hochul said she visited Flushing to witness the \u201cdevastating effect\u201d that the tariffs are having on businesses throughout the state. Hochul described the tariffs as an \u201cillegal scheme\u201d that had been struck down by the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
In a 6-3 decision last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Trump had exceeded his authority by imposing tariffs on nearly every US trading partner. Trump announced a new set of tariffs almost immediately after the ruling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat they have done, under an illegal scheme that has been struck down by the United States Supreme Court, was to take money out of the pockets of these small businesses who are working so hard every single day,\u201d Hochul said.<\/p>\n
She said the tariffs are particularly difficult for small businesses, especially businesses in neighborhoods that have been impacted by federal immigration raids.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cBusinesses that were hit hard by the pandemic, hit hard by inflation, and now they\u2019re hit hard by tariffs and, of course, the unlawful immigration enforcement that is literally taking people off these streets,\u201d Hochul added.<\/p>\n
Meng also reported that businesses in the area have experienced a downturn in foot traffic because of fears of federal immigration authorities. Meng added that Trump\u2019s tariffs have created \u201canother crisis\u201d for small businesses by forcing them to pass the cost onto the consumer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been hearing from our local small business owners about how the chaotic rollout of the Trump and Republican tariffs has impacted their livelihood and made it nearly impossible to remain in business,\u201d Meng said. \u201cThey don\u2019t know how to stay afloat without passing the higher costs onto their customers and driving them away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meng added that the tariffs are \u201cunsustainable\u201d for the people and businesses of Queens, many of whom rely on imported goods.\n<\/p>\n
Richards, meanwhile, said all the progress that the state has made to support small businesses during the pandemic and subsequent inflation has been threatened by the tariffs. Richards added that it is vital to ensure that small businesses receive support from the state.<\/p>\n
![\"Hochul](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/US-1-Supermarket-owner-1.jpg\")
Hochul tours US Supermarket 1. Photo by Ramy Mahmoud<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the lifeblood of our communities in Queens County and I want to thank Governor Hochul for coming out to Flushing to support them,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n
Ung similarly described small businesses as the \u201cbackbone\u201d of Flushing\u2019s immigrant community, adding that a \u201clot of people are scared\u201d because of the current political climate and the threat of federal immigration authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are scared right now,\u201d Ung said. \u201cThey\u2019re scared to go to work. They\u2019re scared to go to these supermarkets, these restaurants.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Liu, on the other hand, said the tariffs had been undeniably harmful to the global economy and small businesses, with consumers forced to pay higher prices for goods. He also vowed to fight for refunds for New Yorkers who had been impacted by the tariffs before the Supreme Court issued its ruling last month.<\/p>\n
Additional reporting by Ramy Mahmoud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gov. Kathy Hochul, U.S. Rep. Grace Meng, Queens Borough President Donovan Richards, State Sen. John Liu and Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[310,3945,67879,3932,877,2069,9,24,63,896,122,5807,124,123,17694,31641,67880],"class_list":["post-165412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-daily-newsletter","tag-donovan-richards","tag-flushing-bid","tag-gov-kathy-hochul","tag-grace-meng","tag-john-liu","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-president-donald-trump","tag-queens","tag-queens-chamber-of-commerce","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-sandra-ung","tag-tom-grech","tag-trump-tariffs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Gov.](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Winnie-from-Prince-Optical-1.jpg\")
\t\t\t<\/p>\n