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Small Businesses Gear Up for Tariff Fight at Supreme Court

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Companies that sell diamonds, plant sensors and wine all have one thing in common: They are weighing in against tariffs in a consequential case.EarthQuaker Devices, a manufacturer of musical instruments in Akron, Ohio, uses more than 900 components from over 15 countries to make products that alter the sound of guitars, with names like “Tentacle,” “Rainbow Machine” and “Gary.”The tariffs that President Trump imposed on nearly all trading partners have drastically increased the cost of those components. But EarthQuaker is hoping that the tariff case the Supreme Court plans to hear on Wednesday will render those taxes moot.The company has spent hours searching for U.S. suppliers that would allow it to avoid paying the tariffs. The president, citing an emergency law, has slapped tariffs on more than 100 countries this year in an attempt to reduce the trade deficit and force more manufacturing to the United States. But EarthQuaker found that parts available domestically were 20 to 30 times the price of foreign ones. There has been no sign that tariffs will encourage suppliers to set up U.S. factories to make their goods instead, the company said.“We have spent many hours of wasted time and energy searching for solutions which do not exist,” said Julie Robbins, EarthQuaker’s chief executive. The company paid the U.S. government more than $40,000 in tariffs this year, and sales revenue dropped by 10 percent, she said.EarthQuaker is one of hundreds of small businesses that say they are suffering as a result of Mr. Trump’s tariffs on imports. Many of them have waded into an unfolding legal clash to make that case. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will begin considering the president’s sweeping use of emergency powers to issue tariffs. Legal experts say the case is a tossup, but it has significant implications for U.S. businesses, whose fortunes are being shaped by policy set in Washington.Mr. Trump used the emergency authority, called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, to swiftly raise and lower tariffs on dozens of trading partners. In briefings submitted to the court last week, EarthQuaker and other small businesses argued that those decisions had hammered their bottom lines, forcing some to cut prices, lay off workers or otherwise upend their plans. The argument clashed with Mr. Trump’s repeated assertions that tariffs have not harmed U.S. businesses, workers or consumers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    In Search of Trade Deal, Philippines’ Leader Will Meet With Trump

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    President Trump has placed a 20 percent tariff on goods imported from the country, effective Aug. 1.President Trump is set to meet at the White House on Tuesday with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines, who is seeking to leverage his country’s close relationship with the United States to secure a more favorable trade deal.Mr. Trump plans to host Mr. Marcos for lunch. The Trump administration fell well short of its goal of securing 90 trade deals in 90 days by early July, negotiating only a handful. The White House says that it has, so far, reached framework agreements with Britain, Vietnam and Indonesia, plus a trade truce that rolled back tariffs with China.Mr. Trump has threatened higher tariffs on dozens of countries as of Aug. 1, including the Philippines, which he said would receive a 20 percent tariff. Many global leaders have been negotiating with the Trump administration in an effort to lower those tariffs further.Before leaving for the United States, Mr. Marcos said his primary goal was to make sure that trade between the two nations was strong.“My top priority for this visit is to push for greater economic engagement, particularly through trade and investment between the Philippines and the United States,” he said. “I intend to convey to President Trump and his cabinet officials that the Philippines is ready to negotiate a bilateral trade deal that will ensure strong, mutually beneficial and future-oriented collaborations that only the United States and the Philippines will be able to take advantage of.”A statement from the White House said the meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Marcos would focus on a “shared commitment to upholding a free, open, prosperous and secure Indo-Pacific and advancing shared economic prosperity.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Rising Inflation Underscores Risks in Trump’s New Tariff Threats

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    New data showing price increases last month could foreshadow even higher costs if the president imposes steep tariffs on Aug. 1.President Trump’s steep tariffs have started to weigh on consumers’ wallets, sending prices higher as the White House readies a more drastic — and potentially costly — expansion of its global trade war.The risks in Mr. Trump’s economic strategy began to show on Tuesday, with the release of data that found inflation had accelerated in June. Prices rose noticeably on appliances, clothing and furniture, products that are all heavily exposed to the president’s taxes on imports from Canada, China and other major trading partners.The inflation report undercut Mr. Trump’s continued assertions that Americans would not face financial repercussions from his increasingly aggressive trade brinkmanship. Since taking office, the president has imposed withering duties on allies and adversaries alike, with additional taxes on a range of products such as cars and steel.The latest reading of the Consumer Price Index recorded the first signs of what economists had predicted all along, with U.S. businesses and consumers shouldering a growing share of the burden from the taxes Mr. Trump has imposed on imports.The data also carried perhaps a new warning for the president as he prepares another round of tariffs on dozens of countries in about two weeks, including a 30 percent tax on the European Union. Some experts said that an uptick in inflation could foreshadow more significant price increases later, especially if Mr. Trump proceeds as planned.“Up until this report, you could have argued that inflation is on a journey lower,” said Padhraic Garvey, who leads ING’s research team for the Americas. “Now we are on a journey higher.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    The Economy Has Been Resilient. The New Round of Tariffs May Hit Harder.

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    The economy’s resilience so far to President Trump’s global trade war risks emboldening him and unleashing the sort of economic devastation that economists have long feared.President Trump has had little reason to scale back his global trade war ambitions with inflation subdued, unemployment stable and U.S. stock markets back to record highs.But the latest escalation, including 30 percent levies on the European Union, could deliver a much more painful blow to the United States. If the tariffs go into effect on Aug. 1, they could unleash the sort of devastation to consumers and businesses that economists have long worried about and that Mr. Trump has mostly avoided. Their fear stems from the specter of a stagflationary shock, in which inflation intensifies as growth stalls.“The higher that tariffs end up being, the more stagflationary it will be,” said Eric Winograd, an economist at the investment firm AllianceBernstein.Tariffs have already had an impact on the economy in a number of ways, and the levies now threatened against the European Union risk causing even more painful disruptions, given that the bloc and the United States are each other’s largest trading partner.Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said in a statement that Mr. Trump’s latest tariffs “would disrupt essential trans-Atlantic supply chains, to the detriment of businesses, consumers and patients on both sides of the Atlantic.”So far, businesses have been able to mitigate some of the impact of Mr. Trump’s levies. To get ahead of the tariffs, they stockpiled products earlier this year, causing imports to surge before later crashing down. Americans have grown less confident about the economy as uncertainty surrounding Mr. Trump’s policies has frozen businesses in place.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    It’s No Bluff: The Tariff Rate Is Soaring Under Trump

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    The president has earned a reputation for bluffing on tariffs. But he has steadily and dramatically raised U.S. tariffs, transforming global trade.President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs have prompted investors to bet that he will “always chicken out” and given businesses and foreign leaders hope that the leader of the world’s largest economy will ultimately back down from his threats if they prove too economically disruptive.Events of the past week have cast serious doubt on that bet. As Mr. Trump renews trade threats against more than two dozen trading partners, he is once again proving his fondness for tariffs, and embracing import taxes in a way that no other president has since the Great Depression.A self-described “tariff man,” Mr. Trump has continually extolled the virtues of heavily taxing imports as a way to raise revenue and cajole factories to relocate to the United States. While the president may ultimately give way on some of his most recent threats, he has still steadily and dramatically raised tariffs to levels not seen in a century.Over the past week, Mr. Trump has threatened 25 trading partners with punishing levies on Aug. 1 unless they sign trade deals that Mr. Trump finds acceptable. The list of countries he plans to raise tariffs on include some of America’s biggest sources of imports, including the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, South Korea and Thailand. Those countries had been in active talks with the United States about resolving Mr. Trump’s concerns in an effort to avoid tariffs.Several may still reach deals to avert some of the levies, including India, the European Union, Taiwan and Japan.But even if some deals are reached, American tariffs on trading partners are still likely to rise significantly. That was the case with the two trade agreement frameworks that the Trump administration has so far announced, with Britain and Vietnam, both of which leave double-digit tariffs in place.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Takes Reins on U.S. Economy With Policy Bill and Tariffs Renewal

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    His expensive tax cuts have been signed into law. His steep global tariffs are taking clearer shape. And his twin campaigns to deregulate government and deport immigrants are well underway.With the major components of his agenda now coming into focus, President Trump has already left an indelible mark on the U.S. economy. The triumphs and turbulence that may soon arise will squarely belong to him.Not even six months into his second term, Mr. Trump has forged ahead with the grand and potentially disruptive economic experiment that he first previewed during the 2024 campaign. His actions in recent weeks have staked the future of the nation’s finances — and its centuries-old trading relationships — on a belief that many economists’ most dire warnings are wrong.Last week, the president enacted a sprawling set of tax cuts that he believes to be the ingredients for rapid economic growth, even as fiscal experts warned that the law may injure the poor while putting the U.S. government on a risky new fiscal path.Then, on Monday, Mr. Trump began to issue his latest round of tariff threats, insisting that “we’re done” negotiating as economists warned about a potential surge in consumer prices that could arise from taxing imports.The White House also proceeded with its aggressive and legally contested plans to eliminate scores of federal regulations and deport millions of migrants. The immigration crackdown, in particular, could come to the detriment of many sectors, like agriculture, that rely heavily on foreign labor, experts believe.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Trump Keeps Foreign Countries on Edge as Tariff Deadline Nears

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    The president is again threatening higher tariff rates on a dozen foreign nations, as a deadline elapses this week for making trade deals.President Trump is set to rekindle economic pressure on America’s trading partners this week, as a deadline for making trade deals elapses and the administration begins notifying countries of the tariffs they’ll face on exports to the United States.For 90 days, the administration has been trying to reach trade pacts with dozens of countries in an attempt to lower economic barriers to U.S. exports. In April, the president imposed stiff global tariffs on nearly every trading partner but paused most of those levies until July 9 to try and win concessions.So far, the United States has reached only two preliminary trade deals, with Britain and with Vietnam, which are scant on details and leave much to be worked out.More such limited trade deals could be announced in the coming days, including an initial trade framework with India. Countries that have so far agreed to trade deals, even preliminary handshake agreements, have qualified for lower tariff rates than what Mr. Trump threatened in April.Other countries that have not reached agreements are expected to face sharply higher tariffs, although the president and his advisers have recently implied that the tariffs may not go into effect until Aug. 1, rather than on July 9.Still, with tariffs threatening to strain diplomatic relations and bring some global commerce to a halt, a delay of a few weeks may not to do much to soothe many foreign governments. It could also further unsettle financial markets, which revolted when Mr. Trump initially announced his global tariffs, a meltdown that prompted Mr. Trump to institute the 90-day delay.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    How Health Care Remade the U.S. Economy

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    <!–> [–><!–> –><!–> [–><!–>The change has been particularly visible over the past year, during which health care has been responsible for about a third of all employment growth, while other categories, like retail and manufacturing, have stayed essentially flat.–><!–> –><!–> [–> <!–> –><!–> [–><!–>The nation’s corps of nurses, oncologists, lab technicians, anesthesiologists and other health-related […] More

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    Trump Says U.S. Has Reached Trade Deal With Vietnam

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    The president said he had agreed to initial trade terms with Vietnam, the second country to strike a limited deal after Mr. Trump threatened steep tariffs.President Trump said on Wednesday that the United States had reached a trade deal with Vietnam, one that would roll back some of the punishing tariffs he had issued on Vietnamese products in return for that nation’s agreeing to open its market to American goods.The preliminary deal will also indirectly affect China, an important trading partner of Vietnam.“It will be a Great Deal of Cooperation between our two Countries,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social announcing the deal.According to Mr. Trump, the deal imposes a 20 percent tariff on all imports from Vietnam and a 40 percent tariff on any “transshipping.”That provision is aimed at addressing Trump administration criticisms that countries like Vietnam have become a channel for Chinese manufacturers to bypass U.S. tariffs and funnel goods into the United States.Which products would fall under the higher tariff rate is unclear. It could refer to goods imported to the United States from Vietnam that actually originated in China. But it could also apply to Vietnamese products that use a certain amount of Chinese parts. The deal could include a lower tariff on goods that are made in Vietnam with fewer Chinese parts and materials, and a higher tariff rate for Vietnamese goods that contain many Chinese components.Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, wrote on X that “if another country sells their content through products exported by Vietnam to us — they’ll get hit with a 40 percent tariff.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More