Consider This from NPR - Drowning in tariffs, American businesses try to stay afloat

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

It's pretty rare for one person to do one thing that affects nearly every business in the United States. But that's the power of the presidency and the new tariffs that took effect this week. Over the last few days, as the tariffs have gone up and down, NPR has been talking to Americans who run different kinds of businesses. Even though their companies don't have much in common, all of them are doing the same thing right now: Trying to figure out what's going on and how to respond. Trump's tariff plans affect nearly every company in America. We'll hear from a few business owners about what it means for themFor sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

One way to tell the story of a trade war is through a curved piece of silicone called the frywall. Frywall keeps the sizzle in the pan and the splatter off of you and your stove top. That is the inventor of the frywall, yet you're Reiner on Shark Tank back in 2018. Reiner priced out what it would cost for him to produce his invention in the US

and figured to turn a profit, he'd have to sell a made in the USA fry wall for about 80 bucks. You know, it's really hard to sell a splatter guard for that much money. Even the best splatter guard in the world is not gonna sell for $80. Precisely, it is the best splatter guard in the world,

but you know, splatter just is not as important as other things. So he makes it in China, which allows him to sell it for about $25. And he says that money gets spread around to many parts of the US economy. It goes to the US Postal Service, which provides my quote-unquote free shipping. If I sell on Amazon, it goes to Amazon, who has to pay its warehouse workers. I also have to pay my patent attorney so that my patent is protected and I can't get ripped off.

It has to go to PR, it has to go to marketing. It has to go to the software firms that I use to operate and run my business. But now, President Trump has put a 145% tariff on goods from China. At least that's the number as we record this Thursday afternoon. It's been a moving target.

I've worked hard to have a stable price on my product for almost 10 years. And've worked hard to have a stable price on my product for almost 10 years, and now I'm looking at a situation where I'm gonna have to raise it by 20, maybe 25%, maybe more. I'm not sure if I still have a market at that point, and I don't know if I still have a business. And so if that's gonna be the case

for the foreseeable future for the next four years, where does that leave you? It leaves me making plans from week to week, which is not the way that they teach you to run a business, either at your parents' table or in business school. And there are a lot of yet-year Reiner's out there. Business owners riding the roller coaster as Trump's tariffs have been rolled out, ratcheted up, and partially walked back. We're going to have to scale back a lot of innovation.

We just noticed our first invoice had a tariff line on it. I have hopes that tariffs will help us, but that can't be the end game. Consider this. Trump's tariff plans affect nearly every company in America. We'll hear from a few business owners about what it means for them. From NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things and other currencies. With WISE, you can send, spend, or receive money across borders, all at a fair exchange

rate, no markups or hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. T's and C's apply. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Dignity Memorial. When your celebration of life is prepaid today, your family is protected tomorrow. Planning ahead is truly one of the best gifts you can give your family. For additional information, visit DignityMemorial.com. There's a lot going on right now. Mounting, economic inequality, threats to democracy, environmental disaster, the sour stench of chaos in the air. I'm Brooke Gladstone, host of WNYC's On the Media. Want to understand the reasons and the meanings of the narratives that led us here

and maybe how to head them off at the pass? That's on the media's specialty. Take a listen wherever you get your podcasts. It's Consider This from NPR. Lisa Winton runs exactly the type of business that the Trump administration says its tariffs are supposed to help. I'm a small manufacturer in Georgia and I produce machinery. Winton Machine Company makes metal parts that go into everything from refrigerators to lawn chairs and most of the company's supply chain is in the US. But some of Lisa Winton's distributors

get their parts from China, and they've started passing along the cost of tariffs to her. So I have to purchase, I have to place my order, and then when I place my order, they'll let me know what my tariff fee is. Oh, so you might say, I've got $500 to spend on this, or 5,000, or whatever.

And then when the bill comes in, you see tacked onto it is a tariff fee that could put this way outside of your budget. You just don't know. I don't know. It's uncertainty. And you know, with uncertainty also goes, we ship all over the world. So if there's additional tariffs put on my machinery to export, that's going to be very

painful. Have you heard from anyone who has said, you know what, I was gonna buy from China, but given the situation with the tariffs, I think I would rather buy from Winton Machine instead. Like, is this gonna help you in that respect? We do benefit from manufacturers that say, I wanna buy American-made machinery.

There's just so much unknown right now and I think that's the most difficult thing to make decisions for your company financially when you just don't know all the pieces of the puzzle. I hear a lot of caution in your voice, but I can't quite tell whether you're cautiously optimistic or cautiously pessimistic right now. I think the glass is half full and I've taken a few sips.

Some businesses have to worry about tariffs on one country. Ethan Frisch has to worry about tariffs on 30 different countries. We work with producers in Vietnam, in Sri Lanka, in Tanzania, in Guatemala, in Afghanistan, in Turkey. He's co-founder and co-CEO of a spice company called Burlap and Barrel. They've spent years developing relationships with small farmers. Yesterday, Trump paused global tariffs at 10%

for 90 days on every country but China. But 10% is still a price hike, and nobody knows what'll happen three months from now. We can't just switch our supplier from Vietnam to another country with a lower tariff rate because that variety of cinnamon simply doesn't grow anywhere else. Burlap and Barrel has decided that even with these tariffs, they won't charge customers

more or pay farmers less. We're going to make less money ourselves. That's the bottom line. At the end of the day, we're going to have to scale back a lot of innovation. We launch about 50 new products every year. We had an advent calendar slated for production this year. That was going to involve custom packaging from China and 24 different spices from all around the world. We scrapped that project immediately just as an example.

And these tariffs have made Ethan Frisch face another big change that's hard to put a number on. The farmers that we work with everywhere in rural areas in Vietnam and Guatemala and Tanzania, they understand that the US is a great destination for their crops, but also the personal pride that that goes into knowing that this product is Going to American consumers will appreciate it. Do you think this changes what America represents to them now? 100% it has already changed what America represents to them I think America was framed as a positive trading partner and I think the trust that underpinned that is framed as a positive trading partner. And I think the trust that underpinned that is significantly eroded already. Well, growing exotic spices in the US might be impossible,

but shrimp swim in American waters. My name is Craig Reeves. I'm in Beaufort, South Carolina, and I'm a lifelong commercial shrimper. So is his dad, and the trend lines have been clear for decades. I'm 54, so for my life it's been a trend down, and the last 20 years it's been in a steep decline.

His wild caught shrimp just can't compete on price with the farm raised shrimp from countries like India and Vietnam. So last week when Trump first announced tariffs of 26% on India, 46% on Vietnam and more, Reeves was overjoyed. Ecstatic, overwhelmed that somebody's finally standing up against unfair trade practices. And yesterday when he said for 90 days tariffs on every country but China would be frozen at 10%, that's a lot lower than what you were expecting just last week.

So I've tried to consistently say since the very beginning that tariffs is not, it's a short-term gain, it's a short-term help. My hope is not in 50% or 100% tariffs or whatever's negotiated if it's 10% tariffs. My goal is that the consumer gets to choose whether they buy domestic shrimp or imported shrimp instead of being a consuming nation, we need to be a producing nation. You're 54, so it's safe to say you've got more working years behind you than you have ahead of you. 54, so it's safe to say you've got more working years behind you than you have ahead of you. What is your hope for where the industry will be by the time you retire?

Wow. I'm at a stage in my life where I really want to leave a legacy for my children and grandchildren, for them to have an opportunity to make a living from the sea. And that's at risk right now. Like every American business owner right now, in choppy waters, he's just trying to figure out how to stay afloat. This episode was produced by Mallory Yu and Connor Donovan.

It was edited by Courtney Dorning. Our executive producer is Sammy Yennegan. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro. At Radiolab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry. But, but, we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing. Or politics. music, hockey, sex of bugs. Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers. And hopefully make you see the world anew. Radiolab, adventures on

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