{"id":173866,"date":"2026-02-21T04:07:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/173866\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T04:07:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T04:07:06","slug":"arlington-specialty-shop-owner-says-tariffs-pushed-her-business-to-the-brink-as-supreme-court-strikes-down-trumps-trade-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/173866\/","title":{"rendered":"Arlington specialty shop owner says tariffs pushed her business to the brink as Supreme Court strikes down Trump\u2019s trade policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Owner Julie Seely says rising import costs forced layoffs and price hikes, and she’s at risk of closing.<\/p>\n

ARLINGTON, Texas \u2014 Inside Bella Vita, a specialty olive oil shop in Arlington, owner Julie Seely gestures toward rows of imported bottles she proudly carries.<\/p>\n

Someone would have to travel far to find the olive oil and balsamic vinegar she sells inside the shops of Gracie Lane, but she proudly imports them and sells them in her small business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOurs comes from all over the world,\u201d Seely said.<\/p>\n

Now, she says her small business is on the brink of closing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very rough,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

For months, tariffs have taken a toll on her store. A 25% tariff hit most of the kitchenware lining her shelves. In January, another 10% increase followed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve had to raise all the prices, which has caused me to raise the prices,\u201d Seely said.<\/p>\n

Nearly everything in her store is sourced from abroad. As costs climbed, she said customers stopped walking through the door. Sales dropped sharply. She let go of her entire staff and now runs the shop alone to recover her losses.<\/p>\n

\u201cShutting down. Not being able to continue,\u201d Seely said.<\/p>\n

On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down most of President Donald Trump\u2019s sweeping tariffs<\/a> on dozens of trading partners, ruling 6-3 that he lacked authority under a 1977 emergency powers law to impose the broad import taxes.<\/p>\n

Chief Justice John Roberts said tariffs amount to a tax, a power reserved for Congress.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Trump called the ruling a \u201cdisgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow ridiculous is that? I\u2019m allowed to embargo them \u2026 but if I want to charge them $10, I can\u2019t do that,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

The president later announced he had enacted a 10% global tariff by executive order under a different statute.<\/p>\n

The Yale Budget Lab estimates tariffs imposed during the trade disputes cost the average U.S. household more than $1,600 per year.<\/p>\n

For small businesses like Seely\u2019s, relief may not come soon enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were excited to hear that,\u201d she said of the court\u2019s decision. \u201cAnd I hope that going forward things are gonna improve.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says she\u2019s slowing orders and watching inventory carefully, hoping she won\u2019t have to turn off the lights for good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Owner Julie Seely says rising import costs forced layoffs and price hikes, and she’s at risk of closing.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151],"class_list":["post-173866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}