Peter Elitzer, who runs a chain of discount clothing stores called Label Shopper, worries that tariffs will force him to raise prices, turning off already skittish shoppers.Some are scrambling to avoid the potential import taxes or preparing to pass the cost on to their customers. Others, however, are welcoming tariffs as a defense against foreign competition.
"What used to be just a China problem now has spread," McClelland says, with surging imports from Vietnam, Turkey, India, and Mexico."And of course Mexico is the one I really worry about, because there's a direct route to our market." He acknowledges, however, that import taxes are a double-edged sword. His company has to pay more for the raw aluminum that goes into its products now because of tariffs that Trump imposed the last time he was in the White House.
Bobby Djavaheri and his father Yedidia sell air fryers and other appliances, mostly manufactured in China. Bobby worries that a 60% tariff on imports from China would push the retail price of his products over $200.