Small businesses have been particularly hard hit over the past year. While the COVID-19 pandemic threw the entire global economy into uncharted territory, small businesses have had a very tough time serving customers, keeping employees on staff, and making sure their companies stay afloat.
For businesses of all sizes, surviving the pandemic is unfortunately not the only hurdle they face. Global supply chains have been backed up for months, and governmental barriers, especially tariffs, continue to inflate the cost of doing business. Government can provide a much-needed boost to businesses, particularly many small businesses, and help the economy recover stronger and faster by removing these barriers to growth and job creation.
My business, a family-owned brick-and-mortar store, has had to juggle all of these problems at the same time. As we sell outdoor sports equipment and patio furniture, we initially saw a rush of orders at the start of the pandemic as people tried to find ways to gather safely, and looked to the outdoors.
While this rush of business was certainly welcome, some products and materials have been difficult to source because of the pandemic. That’s because, while we buy American as much as we can, sometimes we simply have no other choice but to import from countries like China for products made of certain materials, such as resin wicker or cast aluminum, that are difficult or impossible to acquire here in the U.S. With supply chains backed up, though, orders have been tougher and tougher to fill, and this hurts our business.
On top of this, tariffs that remain in place due to the trade war with China have cost Americans over $80 billion and counting. The fact remains that tariffs are paid by the importer, in this case American companies and consumers, which means that it’s only been getting more and more expensive to do business. In some cases, tariffs can be half the cost of the product. We have done everything we can to absorb these costs, where possible, and avoid passing them on to our customers. If the tariffs stay in place for much longer, we may have no choice but to find other ways to make up for those increased costs.
That’s why it is so important that President Biden and his team, including incoming Trade Representative Katherine Tai, take a long look at how these tariffs are hurting American businesses. The costs are mounting, as well as the uncertainty around what will happen with the tariffs carried over from the last administration. It’s putting ever increasing amounts of pressure on businesses trying to stay afloat.
This summer could be a big opportunity for small businesses like mine all across the country, but only if we resolve some of the biggest obstacles, including tariffs. If they stay in place and supply chains remain in disarray, our optimism for this summer will quickly fade away.
Small business owners understand better than anyone that we are all in this together. Times are tough, and we are doing all we can for the greater good. In the case of family-owned businesses, that has included shouldering the costs of tariffs. However, without clarity and action from this administration on when these costs will end, business owners may not be able to hold on much longer.