Small businesses across the country and in Connecticut are bracing for the impacts of tariffs.
Mellow Monkey in Stratford sells a wide variety of gifts and décor. While prices haven’t changed yet, store owner Howard Aspinwall believes the impact of 145% tariff on Chinese goods could hit around the holiday time, the store’s busiest time of the year.
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WATCH HEREAspinwall said things could cost more or not be available at all if vendors cancel shipments.
“The issue is that most of the items that are home décor and gifts that gift stores sell are imported, and most of those imports come from China,” Aspinwall said.
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SIGN UP “If we're faced with higher prices that we have to pass on to the consumer and a limited inventory, because we have to fight with bigger companies to get whatever actually came over, we are potentially in a very difficult situation to earn the same amount of money that we usually earn during the holidays," he continued.
Aspinwall has already stocked up on some holiday items to prepare. Some experts believe shoppers should also be buying certain foreign goods, like clothes and tech, now before prices rise.
Dr. Mohammad Elahee, a professor of International Business at Quinnipiac University, warns not to panic buy.
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“That cannot be a long-term solution,” he said. “My advice is very simple. Try to stay within your means by what is needed. And if possible, defer the big-ticket items.”
Elahee predicts leaders of the U.S. and China will work out a deal and the tariff will end up being lower than what Trump originally sought.
But Elahee believes the impacts have already caused damaged.
“My worry is that maybe the government will not impose a tariff, but they cannot restore the trust of others,” he said. “It takes years, decades to build the trust. Once it's gone. It's not easy to repair.”
President Trump again acknowledged his border tax on Chinese imports could hurt American consumers at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“Somebody said, ‘Oh, the shelves are going to be open.’ Well, Maybe the children will have two dolls instead of thirty, you know? And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple of bucks more than they would normally,” Trump said.
But the president argues it's critical to boost American business.
"With my China tariffs, we're ending the greatest job theft in the history of the world,” he said. “China's taken more jobs from us than any country has ever taken from another country.”
