’Nowhere to turn’: Small businesses dependent on imports from China are feeling more desperate

By MAE ANDERSON Associated Press Business Writer NEW YORK AP Major orders canceled Containers of products left stranded overseas No roadmap for what comes next The Trump administration raised tariffs on goods from China to in early April Since then small business owners who depend on imports from China to survive have become increasingly desperate as they eye dwindling inventory and skyrocketing invoices President Donald Trump seemed to back down somewhat last week when he commented he expected the tariffs to come down substantially That helped set off a rally in the stock area But for small businesses that operate on razor-thin margins the back and forth is causing massive upheaval Particular say they could be just months from going out of business altogether The Massachusetts family-owned battle company Competition makers are particularly susceptible to the tariffs since the majority of games and toys sold in the U S are made in China according to The Toy Association WS Encounter Co based in Manchester-by-the-Sea Massachusetts is a family-owned business that licenses Hasbro board games like Monopoly Candy Land and Scrabble and creates deluxe versions of them Its greater part popular line of games come in boxes that look like vintage books and sell for Related Articles Supreme Court hears arguments on event about FBI raid on wrong Georgia home World shares mostly gain ahead of earnings and content releases Amazon launches its first internet satellites to compete against SpaceX s Starlinks The Memphis church pivotal in Martin Luther King Jr s final days suffers a devastating fire Jack in the Box launches turnaround with plan to close up to locations The company s games were featured in Oprah s Favorite Things list in and sold in stores in North America from big national chains to mom-and-pop stores declared owner Jonathan Silva whose father founded the company in All of WS Battle s production is done in China The tariffs have brought the past years of healthy progress to a screeching halt Over the past three weeks WS Championship has had three containers of finished games worth stranded in China It lost orders from three of the largest U S retailers totaling million in business And there s not much Silva can do about it As a small business we don t have the runway or the capabilities to move manufacturing on a whim commented Silva who has employees He reported the tariffs have disrupted our business and put us on the verge of insolvency and estimates he has about a four-month runway to stay afloat if nothing changes We re really hoping that cooler heads prevail he mentioned Artificial flowers in Kentucky Jeremy Rice co-owns House a home-d cor shop in Lexington Kentucky that specializes in artificial flower arrangements for the home About of the flowers his business uses are made in China This undated photo provided by Jeremy Rice shows Rice at House a home-d cor shop that specializes in artificial flower arrangements for the home in Lexington Ky Jeremy Rice via AP Rice uses dozens of vendors The largest are absorbing several of the cost of the tariffs and passing on the rest One vendor is raising prices by and another But Rice is expecting smaller vendors to increase prices by much higher percentages House offers mid-range artificial flowers A large hydrangea head will retail for to for example China is the only place that manufacturers higher quality silk flowers It would take a vendor years to open a factory in a different country or move production somewhere else Rice explained Rice ordered his holiday d cor early this year But even after stocking up ahead of the tariffs he only has enough everyday floral inventory in to last two to three months After that I don t know what we re going to do he stated Rice is concerned that the bargain war will wipe out a bunch of mom-and-pop stores similar to what happened in the Great Recession and the pandemic There s nowhere to turn there s nothing to do he stated Tea in Michigan A tea shop in a Michigan college town is also caught in the middle of the ongoing tariff fight It s basically just put a big pit in my stomach declared Lisa McDonald owner of TeaHaus located in Ann Arbor home to the University of Michigan McDonald has owned TeaHaus for nearly years and sells tea to customers across the U S Owner Lisa McDonald packages a loose leaf tea orders at the TeaHaus Thursday April in Ann Arbor Mich AP Photo Paul Sancya Americans drank about billion servings of tea in according to the Tea Association of the U S A Almost all of that is imported since tea isn t grown in the U S at scale due to factors ranging from situation to cost McDonald imports loose-leaf tea from China India Kenya Sri Lanka and other countries She says her customer base is from all over the U S and the world But she worries there is a limit to what they ll spend Her premium teas can cost up to for a -gram bag I don t think I can charge for a -gram bag of tea no matter how amazing that tea is she reported McDonald understands Trump s rationale for wanting to use tariffs to spur U S manufacturing but says it doesn t apply to the tea industry We can t grow tea in the U S to the extent that we need We can t just flip the industry and make tea great again in America It just can t happen she commented Car accessories in Oklahoma Jim Umlauf s business Knines based in Oklahoma City makes car seat covers and cargo liners for dog owners and others To do so he requirements raw materials such as fabric coatings and components from China Umlauf has explored manufacturing in countries other than China since when Trump first instituted a tariff on goods from China but has run into complications In the meantime Knines absorbs the extra cost which Umlauf says has limited its advancement and squeezed its margins Now the new tariffs make it nearly impossible to do business The demand is there but the company can t afford to bring over more products We only have a limited amount of inventory left and without several relief we ll run out soon Umlauf explained As a small business owner who has worked hard to develop a high-quality brand create jobs and contribute to the area Umlauf is frustrated He has tried to contact the White House and other decision-makers to ask for small business advocacy But he s gotten zero response It s time for policymakers to consider the full impact of transaction policies not just on stock prices or global competitiveness but on the real people running small businesses he announced AP videojournalist Mike Householder in Detroit contributed to this review