Large and small businesses tell CNBC that the last series of President Donald Trump’s pricesTargeting countries around the world and raising commercial levies up to the highest rates of a century, could lead to the abandonment of freight in ports while owners and CEOs short of money reject incoming products that could eliminate them financially.
Rick Muskat, president of the Deer Stags family shoes retailer, who imports around two million shoes per year – with around 98% of the shoes of their men and boys made in China and sold in Macy’s, Kohl’s, JCPENNY and on Amazon – is among business owners who are preparing to assume exponential importance, but indicates financial pain its companies and retailers between retailers.
His pair of men’s shoes of $ 50 and $ 35 has already increased from $ 80 to $ 65, respectively, after recent trade warfares by the United States, with deer to pay more than 104% of new prices on Chinese products stacked at the top of previous prices.
Before the increase in prices in 2025, his business paid a 6% right on their shoes.
“Then, the prices were increased by 10% twice, which brought my tariffs to 26%. Last week, Trump put 34% additional and now the 50% taken today. All these prices bear my total price to 110% on my leather shoes. My leather shoes now have a 120% price. How budgeted by the budget?” Said Muskat.
He estimates that the cost of freight orders subject to new prices will drop from $ 60,000 to $ 600,000 and $ 1 million.
“The burden on cash flows is the immediate problem,” he said. “We do not have the capital to debate us.
Muskat said that he would not reject the port containers who would force the supplier to bring back the freight, but he told a factory to take an expedition break for a week or two, to see how things are going. Conversations with retailers are underway.
Other American importers should abandon
Trump added another change to the fluid situation on Wednesday, saying that some countries other than China would receive A 90 -day break in implementing pricesBut new prices on China would increase to 125%. According to an estimate, more than half of the $ 2 billion in daily import rates which will be billed by the United States must be on Chinese products and the The prices on these goods will reach more than a billion dollars per day.
The shipping containers on the MSC Livorno await an unloading of the port of Long Beach, California, on March 5, 2025, one day after American president Donald Trump.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty images
“The main trend we see is that sender does not seek to accept their freight,” said Joseph Esteves, CEO of Maine Pointe, world consultant in supply chain. “Many of these companies are used financially. They do not have the requirements of the working capital and they have no money. So they just can’t take this and hope to see what is happening. They do not have liquidity to do so,” he said. Results and cash levels were more sensitive to the major costs of costs, because consumer demand has slowed down, “before all these nonsense,” he said. “Each CEO we are talking about seems to just wait. They just don’t accept right now.”
Currently, many companies tell their manufacturing facilities to delay the shipment and not have freight loads on a ship. If the goods arrive at the port and they cannot pay the import prices, the goods are at the port and the company is invoiced with expensive detention costs.
For many importers, “there are no factories in the United States”
Bruce Kaminstein, a providential investor at New York Angels and founder and former CEO of the Casabella cleaning products company, is experiencing the challenges of manufacturing in China. Kaminstein was able to sail in the prices of the First Trade War with China, but he warns that start-ups do not have the chests of large companies to resist the capital crisis.
“The products will be left in containers because the retailers will not take them,” said Kaminstein.
For the moment, any freight on the water will not face the new prices. In the updated directives on Chinese prices published Tuesday by American customs, a “water clause” explained that the cargo entering the ports today or in the coming weeks will not be subject to the prices, which will not be nailed to any goods arrived until May 27.
But Kaminstein says that it takes years for the manufacturing supply chains to be established.
“The medium-sized house household company, for example, is $ 20 million. They don’t have the capital to open a factory. … There are no companies, no factories that make products for other brands,” he said. “This is the real point here. If you have a great idea, where are you going to make the product? There are no factories here in the United States to make products for other brands.”
Mary Rollman, an organizational and executive strategist for KPMG US, said that companies have more sophisticated and better analyzes to assess the cost of moving a supply chain today, but added that it takes years to find and qualify a supplier.
“Companies must assess the cost of restoration of a supply chain,” said Rollman. “They will examine hard data on fixed costs, looking at the labor pool to see if there are enough workers to meet demand. They must also see whether it is still profitable to maintain manufacturing outside the United States or to move to other countries with fewer prices because it is even cheaper than coming back.”
The other option, she said, is to stay in the country where manufacturing currently takes place and has set up a new administration in four years which could cancel the prices.
“We use components everywhere,” said Kaminstein. “Very rarely, the products have just made in one place. We are used to a global supply chain. In Casabella, we have brought products from around the world and we have manufactured products in the United States.”
The Small Business Administration told CNBC in an email that Trump’s commercial plan would ultimately support the owners of American companies.
In an email, a spokesperson for SBA wrote: “SBA fully supports President Trump’s efforts to restore fair trade, which will bring back American jobs and revitalize the American industry, allowing entrepreneurs to play the rules of the game and wins. new Manufacturing initiative, including our efforts to reduce $ 100 billion in administrative formalities, this administration will release historical opportunities for small businesses and workers. “”
Deer Stags’ “thin margins” have forbidden it to download loading products, and consumers may finally have to pay. Muskat says that difficult price discussions with retailers are underway.
“We had a conversation with a retailer who agreed to divide the increase, but they did not think that they could increase in prices. Most of the retail community is still trying to understand what to do,” he said. “It’s so fluid. How do you plan? Hope is not a strategy, but most people hope that Trump and Xi will talk. The two speak hard, but it will be damaging for the two countries.”
“The prices on the products that consumers buy every day like clothes or that cannot be cultivated here as coffee or bananas that have just tripled or more,” said Josh Teitelbaum, Akin’s main lawyer. “We should expect it to overthrow the economy.”
“It is important to remember that the new prices will be paid by American importers,” said Jon Gold, vice-president of the National Retail Federation. “While retailers will alleviate as best as they can, they will unfortunately not absorb all increased costs. With certain rate rates almost 50% and others more than 100%, many retailers will be forced to increase prices. We encourage administration to quickly negotiate agreements with the countries with which we are engaged with trade.”