Real life tariff effects

I have a customer, small business with about 15 employees. They import various small parts from India that are assembled together into the products this company sells in the US. Customer used to import th er parts from China, but switched to India after the 2018 China duties went into effect.

Some of the parts are subject to 50% steel or aluminum, but most aren’t. If products are subject to the steel/aluminum duty, he won’t get hit with the 25% reciprocal or 25% Russian penalty. Company owner called me after he got my email announcing the 25% Russian penalty. He was nearly in tears. He will have to pass these duties along to his customers and he’s not sure if they will accept price increases.

It’s not possible to buy these parts in the US. They’re not made here at all. It makes no sense for a smalll business to attempt to manufacture these parts. Customer is not sure his business will survive this. if his business goes under, that’s 15 people that lose their jobs besides the owner. Company is 25 years old.

That is what these tariffs are doing in the real world.

Thank you for reporting this, Tradd. I know anecdotes aren't real research, but data and lies we hear on the news aren't real life. It would be great for someone to collect these kinds of case studies on the consequences of Trump's "beautiful tariffs. If we have enough of them, a credible case can be made to pressure Trump to revoke them.

That's just so awful. Sickening. You know there are more too.

It's causing my fire department some grief.

And as an individual consumer, I have decided to simply not purchase some planned high-dollar items that are sourced from overseas due to the tariff upcharge. There are no US suppliers of the items I wished to have. I will probably just purchase them in person in Europe.

Bae, fire dept can’t get needed gear or it’s too expensive?

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Originally Posted by Tradd

Bae, fire dept can’t get needed gear or it’s too expensive?

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A bit of both.

One example: we are about to replace and/or refurbish 8 fire engines, 2 ambulances, 3 water tenders. Prices have gone up considerably as some of the components and materials are made overseas. Availability has been pushed out from 1.5 years to 2->2.5 years. We were in the middle of preparing a bond offering for this effort when all of this nonsense dropped chaos into the planning and analysis process. And I suspect if the chaos continues, the new numbers we are asking for have some likelihood of being too low, and I suspect the delays to delivery will only grow. I'm also not certain the voters will support the bond at this new price point, we need a 60% yes vote in the November election.

Another example is some of the quite expensive, sophisticated medical equipment we keep in our ambulances, which also all needs replaced, is made overseas and not in the USA, and the already-high costs are going up. Some of the inexpensive consumable stuff on the ambulance is made overseas as well, as we discovered during the COVID period and experienced the severe supply shortages that caused.

Combined with Federal grants drying up for some of this task, we're basically screwed.

After more discussions with customers today, I’m guessing at least one will go under by the end of the year, solely due to the tariff situation.

This is all very worrisome.

Although I could not link the article from WESH news, Seminole county, just northeast of Orlando is citing the exact same scenario as Bae describes. No doubt happening throughout the country.

who did not know this would happen?

and where will the money be spent? Paying down the deficit? I doubt it.

Philosophically speaking only, how much financial responsibility should the Federal government be giving for local governmental services such as Fire protection and EMS? I realize local budgets have this Federal help baked into their budgets and it all may be tied to Federal regulations. If the Feds require certain standards, they are granting money to help meet those standards. Maybe, I don’t know.

But in theory, I do not like local government services depending on the Feds for funding. I realize any retraction from this enmeshing of federal and local dollars would be painful and rake lots of time.

to Flowers’ point, doesn't look like these monies will be applied to the federal deficit and that makes me furious.

As an aside, our fire protection services in my tiny town is not funded by taxes, it is privately funded, and I do not understand how that possibly works but it seems to work, at least judging by the very nice *TWO* newish brick firehouses in town. We are “billed” around $60 annually which we could choose not to pay. Emergency visits work like this: if you need fire truck, they come to your house at no charge if you have paid the annual bill.if you havent paid, they come and later charge you a couple hundred bucks.

EMS services are different, that is funded by taxes.

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Originally Posted by flowerseverywhere

Although I could not link the article from WESH news, Seminole county, just northeast of Orlando is citing the exact same scenario as Bae describes. No doubt happening throughout the country.

who did not know this would happen?

and where will the money be spent? Paying down the deficit? I doubt it.

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Money from duties goes into the general treasury fund. That is nothing new.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Philosophically speaking only, how much financial responsibility should the Federal government be giving for local governmental services such as Fire protection and EMS? I realize local budgets have this Federal help baked into their budgets and it all may be tied to Federal regulations. If the Feds require certain standards, they are granting money to help meet those standards. Maybe, I don’t know.

But in theory, I do not like local government services depending on the Feds for funding. I realize any retraction from this enmeshing of federal and local dollars would be painful and rake lots of time.

to Flowers’ point, doesn't look like these monies will be applied to the federal deficit and that makes me furious.

.

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my article did not mention grants. Strictly prices going up due to tariffs.

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Originally Posted by flowerseverywhere

my article did not mention grants. Strictly prices going up due to tariffs.

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ok. I was mixing concepts, sort of touching on bae’s notes about grants to his operation.

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Philosophically speaking only, how much financial responsibility should the Federal government be giving for local governmental services such as Fire protection and EMS?

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As you point out, untangling the current system properly would involve a bit more planning and complexity to achieve than simply turning off the switch. In the case of my community, we are taxed heavily by the Federal and State governments, who then return to us a small fraction of the money we send them to “help” us. We could probably afford easily to pay for most of these services if our money never left the County, and they didn’t tax us.

In the broader arena, some events that can occur (hurricanes, earthquakes, …) typically produces expenses that local communities and regions cannot afford to react to, or even plan for, with the resources within their boundaries. This is why things like FEMA exist. One could certainly imagine getting rid of Federal/regional agencies that provide this sort of expertise and disaster relief, and replacing it with some sort of mutual-aid society/insurance scheme in an anarcho-syndicalist sense, but again, the transition to that Bold New World is more complicated than the current regime seems to understand. And if you create that solution, it tends to look a lot like a government, but with a different name.

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As an aside, our fire protection services in my tiny town is not funded by taxes, it is privately funded, and I do not understand how that possibly works but it seems to work,

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What is the size of your agency, and the composition?

Mine has 2 full-time professional firefighter/paramedics on-duty 24 hours a day. To maintain the shift schedule, that requires 8 full-time employees. (This is a standard shift structure across the nation). Each of those people gets a burdened salary in excess of $150k/year. Then we have ~70 volunteer firefighter/EMTs. Each of those, though volunteer, has to be tracked and trained as if they were a full-time union firefighter/emt employee. Which is expensive. And then, we have the administrative staff to deal with all of this. We have 7 fire stations on this island, only the main station receives the 24x7 staffing.

Our total budget is around $4 million/year.

Our ambulance service charges in the following fashion:

- if you live here, we send you a bill, and then forgive any portion of the bill that your medical insurance, if you have any, does not cover. We switched to doing this a few years back when we realized people were paying for insurance that would cover this, and not receiving the benefit of their insurance, instead in essence ending up double-paying for the same thing.

- if you don’t live here, we send you a bill, and don’t write off the amount not covered by your insurance.


For context, the simplest ambulance call, having someone sit in the back of the ambulance and get a bandaid, still requires the ambulance to be put back into service (sanitized/sterilized, restocked), a process that takes about an hour for two people if you do it by the book.

okay-----manya the parts that are made for rehabbing old, junk cars are manufactured in Asia, and that made them affordable. Even if it didn't meet the "Buy American-Made" ideology. But yeah---many small American businesses import and resell them in America. See? Especially car parts that are chrome-plated. Yup. So, yeah---that's gonnaaa be a negative, on account of tariffs. Hopefully, it won't last too long. Meanwhile, i can repair some steering columns i have lying around here. Hope that helps you kids some. Thank mee.

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Originally Posted by bae

What is the size of your agency, and the composition?

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I have no idea. My general impression is that no one is full-time. My town has a population of 2,500. There is one other municipality of about the same size in our county. Between the two of them I imagine they cover the county. I do know that in a recent fire of size downtown, equipment, and staff came from outside the county. This fire was in an old Victorian commercial building that was attached to other buildings so they had to save the attached buildings which they did.

the Emergency Medical Services system here is a tax supported district and is separate from our fire department.

NYT article on small businesses and tariff impacts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/11/b...e=articleShare

Since all of this tariff stuff started, I have been reading product and food labels. Much to my surprise, many of the health and beauty products are manufactured in Canada from foreign ingredients. Even my crackers and cheese are made in Canada. Trying to understand what tariffs apply to what category of products is to confusing to unravel for my brain though.

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Originally Posted by pinkytoe

Since all of this tariff stuff started, I have been reading product and food labels. Much to my surprise, many of the health and beauty products are manufactured in Canada from foreign ingredients. Even my crackers and cheese are made in Canada. Trying to understand what tariffs apply to what category of products is to confusing to unravel for my brain though.

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I’m the only one at work who can keep it straight.

Shipments via international mail that are under $800 have been duty free, even since de minimis went away. Well, that goes away at the end of the month. They've figured out better procedures on collecting and paying the duty.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

Shipments via international mail that are under $800 have been duty free, even since de minimis went away. Well, that goes away at the end of the month. They've figured out better procedures on collecting and paying the duty.

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Ouch. That will hurt me for sure.

We've been waiting for a month for a package from Japan. Japan mail says it was sent. USPS says they haven't seen it... Who knows?

So now what happens?

More mayhem?

My prediction is that trump now has a new whipping boy to blame for the poor economy and a new reason to pressure for lower interest rates. He has a knack for burning bridges with his allies. I've lost track of his many changes of tariffs, but a logical guess would be a reduction of consumer prices.

Watched a small portion of the idiotic rantings of trump today. Had to turn off because he was so uncouth and inept. There is no wonder his ratings are so low!

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Originally Posted by bae

So now what happens?

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Refunds were not mentioned in today's ruling. Kavanaugh mentioned them in his dissent, but they appear to have been left for litigation. It would be chaos, I can tell you from the customs broker end!

10% worldwide flat rate to go into effect Monday under Section 122. Valid for 150 days and can only be extended by Congress. Goes into effect Tuesday, but there is also an in transit exemption, as with the other increases last year.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/president...ents-problems/

There will be more tariffs under Section 301 (this was used for the 2018 China duties) and Section 232 (industry wide duties, currently for steel, aluminum, copper, lumber, automotive). But these require investigations and hearings. Not fast.

This blew up my day. I spent all day answering emails and phone calls. Explaining this over and over, including the fact that refunds aren't provided for and there is NO process for them.

We are also holding a bunch of clearances until Monday. CBP and brokerage software providers have to update their systems to remove the reciprocal/fentanyl duties.

I get some pleasure in knowing trump will not have the hammer of excessive tariffs to bully other countries into making his deals. The "paybacks" have built up over the year since liberation day and it seems like a wise supreme court would have ruled sooner to avoid the large numbers left to be litigated. Bessent says the revenue generated by the tariffs will remain the same, that there are enough work arounds to side step the court ruling. I don't get that that is true, but it doesn't have any effect on the many billions that may have to be paid back.

The talking heads say this proves the court is not a puppet for trump and to expect other ruling to go against him in the future. I wonder which lawsuits will reach the supreme court next. In my world the gross insults levied against the three conservatives and other justices in the majority wold bias future decisions, but maybe they are immune to such personal vendettas. I wonder if they will get on trumps revenge tour list now that they have crossed him. JD says the decision represents "lawlessness" from the court. I suspcet other minions will chime in with court abuse to earn favor with the king.

De minimis is not going away either, as some had hoped.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/b...smid=url-share

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Originally Posted by Tradd

De minimis is not going away either, as some had hoped.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/21/b...smid=url-share

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Sounds like more crazy work for you Tradd. So sorry!

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Originally Posted by iris lilies

Sounds like more crazy work for you Tradd. So sorry!

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I don't deal with the low value entries on small parcels from overseas. I handle commercial clearances. Some things might be lower value, but they all get a formal clearance.

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Originally Posted by Tradd

I don't deal with the low value entries on small parcels from overseas. I handle commercial clearances. Some things might be lower value, but they all get a formal clearance.

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oh, I figured that, I just mean more work for you in general, Not about the little shipments

Orange Man just put the 10% under Section to 122, announced yesterday, to 15%. That's the max allowed under that law.

okay----oh, well; that's the way the entrepreneurial cookie crumbles. You can always get re-employed at McDonalds, now that those dems saw to it they pay a "living wage". Ha. Steada working as a middleman for cheap chinneese imports. Serves you kids right. Also, those rich people on planet Orcas will just have to form up bucket brigades when one o' their way overpriced homes catch on fire. But yeah---that's my opinion, and you can thankk mee. Yup.

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Originally Posted by littlebittybobby

okay----oh, well; that's the way the entrepreneurial cookie crumbles. You can always get re-employed at McDonalds, now that those dems saw to it they pay a "living wage". Ha. Steada working as a middleman for cheap chinneese imports. Serves you kids right. Also, those rich people on planet Orcas will just have to form up bucket brigades when one o' their way overpriced homes catch on fire. But yeah---that's my opinion, and you can thankk mee. Yup.

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This from a guy who doesn’t eat real food… addled!