It's hard doing business when you don't know what your costs will be. But that's the situation many U.S. importers now find themselves in.
A federal appeals court struck down most of President Trump's global tariffs last week, ruling that Trump had overstepped his authority in levying taxes of 10% to 50% on nearly everything the U.S. imports.
But the tariffs remain in place for now as the final decision likely heads to the Supreme Court. Trump told reporters Tuesday that the administration would seek an expedited ruling.
That means businesses across the country remain in limbo — uncertain if the tariffs will stay or go. Here's how three businesses are coping in the meantime.
Monopoly maker faces 'roller coaster'
When Jonathan Silva, a small business owner in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., heard the appeals court ruling on the eve of a three-day weekend — he got to work, and not happily.
"It's been a roller-coaster," says Silva. "I really would have liked to have just enjoyed Labor Day with my family and gotten my kids back to school. But it led to a lot more work on my mind than I would have liked."
Silva's company markets high-end board games, which are mostly manufactured in China. After Trump ordered triple-digit tariffs on Chinese goods this spring, Silva explored shifting production to Vietnam or Brazil. He's also decided to make one of the company's 120 games — a specialty edition of Monopoly — in the United States, beginning next year. But it's difficult to make decisions when the tariff landscape keeps shifting.
"You can't do business that way," he says. "You can't grow. You can't hire. You can't invest. Having no certainty has handcuffed us."
Silva's business raised prices in July to help offset Trump's emergency tariffs. He's prepared to lower prices if the Supreme Court agrees that the tariffs should go away.
"If we can get any type of rollback or tariff relief," Silva says, "I would love nothing more than to roll back my pricing."
A maker of lifejackets for dogs faces a big call
Barton O'Brien — who runs a company in Stevensville, Md., that sells collars, harnesses and lifejackets for dogs — is flying blind after last week's court ruling.
In order to have merchandise for the busy spring selling-season, he has to place orders soon with factories in Asia — without knowing if the tariffs will still be in place when the goods arrive.
"We have to roll the dice," O'Brien says. "We have no idea what the price is going to be. That's a really tough negotiation to have with customers who are trying to plan things out."
O'Brien has told retailers that if tariffs go away, he'll keep his own prices steady. Otherwise, he'll have to charge more.
He's decided not to take a chance on importing goods from India, since Indian products now face one of Trump's highest tariffs: 50%.
"A 50% tariff isn't a tax," O'Brien says. "That's an embargo."
He already canceled an order of winter sweaters from India that were supposed to go on sale this month.
"Our fall collection that we worked on for over a year," O'Brien says, "we're not going to have them at all."
He's frustrated that Congress hasn't done more to rein in the president's tariffs, and says many of the small business owners he talks to are not optimistic about the judicial process.
"Nobody has faith in the Supreme Court," he says. "We just assume they're going to rubber stamp it for the administration, regardless of the precedent they're setting."
Not popping any champagne corks
Meanwhile, in Columbus, Ohio, wine merchant Patrick Allen wonders if he might get a refund for the tariffs he's already paid.
The administration has been collecting tens of billions of dollars a month in tariffs — money that may have to be returned to businesses if the Supreme Court agrees that the levies are illegal.
But more than a refund, Allen just wants some certainty.
"It would be nice to get some of that back," says Allen. "It would definitely help. But just being able to make more long-term plans would be more helpful than getting that back now."
Allen says it was difficult to place orders for European wine during the spring and summer when Trump was threatening to add tariffs of 20, 50 or even 200%.
"We've been kind of ordering in fits and starts, and our inventory is much lower than it normally would be," Allen says. "So as a result, we've got lost sales and lost income."
Trump ultimately struck a trade deal with the European Union that calls for a 15% tariff. Wineries in France and Italy might absorb some of that cost, Allen says, but the rest is being passed on to retailers and shoppers in the U.S.
"At the very high end, people that are paying hundreds of dollars for a bottle are not going to worry about paying $15 more for a bottle," Allen says. " I think it's a lot of the wines in the middle will be jumping from $19 to $25 or $25 to $35 that are going to suffer the most."
To make up for the drop in sales, Allen has begun looking for new sources of revenue, offering wine tastings and leading his first tour of the French wine country.
And he wishes there was something else people knew about President Trump's tariffs.
"Just trying to get people to understand that all of this money that's supposedly coming to [the U.S.] government is coming directly out of their pockets," he says. "Not from foreign governments."
Copyright 2025 NPR
