0:00

One way to tell the story of

0:02

a trade war is through a curved

0:04

piece of silicone called the Frywall. Frywall

0:06

keeps the sizzle in the pan and

0:09

the splatter off of you and your

0:11

stove top. That is the inventor of

0:13

the Frywall, yet ear riner on Shark

0:16

Tank back in 2018. Reiner priced out

0:18

what it would cost for him to

0:20

produce his invention in the US and

0:22

figured to turn a profit, he'd have

0:25

to sell a maid in the USA

0:27

Frywall for about 80 bucks. Yeah, it's

0:29

really hard to sell a splatterguard for

0:32

that much money. Even the best

0:34

splatterguard for that much money. Even

0:36

the best splatterguard in the world.

0:38

So he makes it in China,

0:40

which allows him to sell it

0:42

for about $25. And he says

0:44

that money gets spread around to

0:46

many parts of the US economy.

0:48

It goes to the US Postal

0:50

Service, which provides my quote unquote

0:52

free shipping. If I sell on

0:54

Amazon, it goes to Amazon, it's

0:56

warehouse workers. I also have to

0:58

pay my patent attorney so that

1:00

my patent is protected and I can't

1:02

get ripped off. It has to go

1:04

to PR, it has to go to

1:07

marketing. It has to go to the

1:09

software firms that I use to operate

1:11

and run by business. But now President

1:14

Trump has put a 145% tariff on

1:16

goods from China. At least that's the

1:18

number as we record this Thursday afternoon.

1:21

It's been a moving target. I've worked

1:23

hard to have a stable price on

1:25

my product for almost 10 years. And

1:27

now I'm looking at a situation where

1:30

I'm going to have to raise it

1:32

by 20 maybe 25% maybe more. I'm not

1:34

sure if I still have a business. And

1:36

so if that's going to be the case

1:38

for the foreseeable future for the next four

1:41

years, where does that leave you? It leaves

1:43

me making plans from week to week,

1:45

which is not the way that they

1:47

teach you to run a business, either

1:49

at your parents' table or at business

1:51

school. And there are a lot

1:53

of yet-year riners out there. Business

1:55

owners riding the roller coaster as

1:57

Trump's tariffs have been rolled out.

1:59

it up and partially walked back.

2:01

We're going to have to scale

2:04

back a lot of innovation. We

2:06

just noticed our first invoice that

2:08

had a tariff line on it. I

2:10

have hopes that tariffs will help us,

2:13

but that can't be the

2:15

end game. Consider this. Trump's

2:17

tariff plans affect nearly every

2:19

company in America. We'll hear

2:21

from a few business owners about

2:24

what it means for them. From

2:26

NPR, I'm Ari Shapiro. Support

2:32

Support for NPR and the following

2:34

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3:00

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that represent the voices in

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every corner of the country.

3:25

Hear the bigger picture every

3:27

day on NPR. It's

3:30

considered this from

3:32

NPR. Lisa Winton runs

3:35

exactly the type of

3:37

business that the Trump

3:39

administration says its tariffs

3:41

are supposed to help.

3:43

I'm a small manufacturer in

3:45

Georgia. and I produce machinery.

3:48

Winton Machine Company makes metal

3:50

parts that go into everything from

3:52

refrigerators to lawn chairs. And most

3:54

of the company's supply chain is

3:56

in the US. But some of

3:58

Lisa Winton's distributors get... parts from

4:00

China and they've started passing along

4:03

the cost of tariffs to her.

4:05

So I have to purchase, I have to

4:07

place my order and then when I place

4:09

my order they'll let me know what my

4:11

tariff be is. Oh so you might say

4:13

I've got $500 to spend on this or

4:15

$5,000 or whatever and then when the bill

4:17

comes in you see tacked on to it

4:19

is a tariff fee that could put this

4:21

way outside of your budget. You just don't

4:23

know. I don't know. It's uncertainty.

4:25

And, you know, with uncertainty also

4:27

goes, we ship all over the

4:30

world. So if there's additional tariffs

4:32

put on my machinery to export,

4:34

that's going to be very painful.

4:36

Have you heard from anyone who

4:38

has said, you know what, I was

4:41

going to buy from China, but given

4:43

the situation with the tariffs, I think

4:45

I would rather buy from Witten machine

4:47

instead. Like, is this going to help

4:50

you in that respect? We do

4:52

benefit from... manufacturers that

4:54

say I want to buy American-made machinery.

4:56

There's just so much unknown right now

4:58

and I think that's the most difficult

5:01

thing to make decisions for your company

5:03

financially when you just don't know all

5:05

the pieces of the puzzle. I hear

5:07

a lot of caution in your voice

5:09

but I can't quite tell whether

5:11

you're cautiously optimistic or cautiously pessimistic

5:14

right now. I think the glass is half full?

5:16

and I've taken a few sips. Some

5:18

businesses have to worry about tariffs

5:20

on one country. Ethan Frisch has

5:22

to worry about tariffs on 30

5:24

different countries. We work with the

5:26

producer in Vietnam, in Sri Lanka,

5:29

in Tanzania, in Guatemala, in Afghanistan,

5:31

and Turkey. He's co-founder and co-seo

5:33

of a spice company called Burlap

5:35

and Beryl. They've spent years developing

5:37

relationships with small farmers. Yesterday, Trump

5:40

paused global tariffs at 10% for

5:42

90 days on every country but

5:44

China. But 10% is still a

5:46

price hike, and nobody knows what'll

5:48

happen three months from now. We

5:50

can't just switch our supplier from

5:52

Vietnam to another country or the

5:54

lower tariff rate. because that variety of

5:56

cinnamon simply doesn't grow anywhere else. Burlap and

5:59

Beryl has just... that even with these

6:01

tariffs, they won't charge customers more or

6:03

pay farmers less. We're going to make

6:05

less money ourselves. That's the bottom line

6:08

at the end of the day. We're

6:10

going to have to scale back a

6:12

lot of innovation. We launch about 50

6:14

new products every year. We launch about

6:17

50 new products every year. We had

6:19

an advent calendar slated for production this

6:21

year. That was going to involve custom

6:24

packaging from China and 24 different spices

6:26

from all around the world. We've scrapped

6:28

that project immediately. the farmers that we

6:30

work with everywhere in rural areas in

6:33

Vietnam and Guatemala and Tanzania, they understand

6:35

that the US is a great destination

6:37

for their crops, but also the personal

6:40

pride that that goes into knowing that

6:42

this product is going to American

6:44

consumers will appreciate it. Do you

6:46

think this changes what America represents

6:48

to them now? 100% it has

6:50

already changed what America represents to them.

6:53

I think America was framed as

6:55

a positive trading partner and I

6:57

think the trust that underpins that

6:59

is significantly eroded already. Well growing

7:02

exotic spices in the U.S. might

7:04

be impossible, but shrimp swim in

7:06

American waters. My name is Craig

7:09

Reeves. I'm in Beauford, South Carolina.

7:11

And I'm a lifelong commercial shrimper.

7:13

So is his dad. And the

7:16

trend lines have been clear for

7:18

decades. I'm 54, so for my

7:21

life, it's been a trend down.

7:23

And you know, the last

7:25

20 years has been in

7:27

a steep decline. His wild-caught

7:30

shrimp just can't compete on

7:32

price with the farm-raised shrimp

7:34

from countries like India and

7:36

Vietnam. So last week, when

7:39

Trump first announced tariffs of

7:41

26% on India, 46% on

7:43

Vietnam, and more, Reeves was

7:45

overjoyed. Exotic. You know, overwhelmed

7:48

that... that somebody's finally standing

7:50

up against unfair trade practices.

7:52

And yesterday when he said

7:54

for 90 days tariffs on every

7:57

country but China would be frozen

7:59

at 10%? That's a lot lower

8:01

than what you were expecting

8:03

just last week. So I've

8:05

tried to consistently say since

8:08

the very beginning that tariffs

8:10

is not, it's a short-term

8:12

gain, it's a short-term help,

8:14

you know, my hope is

8:16

not in 50% or 100%

8:18

tariffs or whatever is negotiated

8:20

if it's 10% tariffs. My

8:22

goal is that the consumer

8:25

gets to choose... Whether they

8:27

buy domestic shrimp or imported

8:29

shrimp, instead of being a

8:31

consuming nation, we need to

8:33

be a producing nation. You're 54, so

8:35

it's safe to say, you've got

8:37

more working years behind you than

8:39

you have ahead of you. What

8:41

is your hope for where the

8:44

industry will be by the time you

8:46

retire? Wow. I'm at a stage

8:48

in my life where I really

8:50

want to leave a legacy for

8:52

my children and grandchildren for them

8:55

to have an opportunity to make

8:57

a living from the sea, and

8:59

that's at risk right now. Like

9:01

every American business owner right

9:03

now, in choppy waters, he's

9:05

just trying to figure out

9:07

how to stay afloat. This

9:11

episode was produced by

9:13

Mallory Ewe and Connor

9:15

Donovan. It was edited

9:17

by Courtney Dorning. Our

9:19

executive producer is Sammy

9:22

Yenegan. It's considered this

9:24

from NPR. I'm Ari Shapiro.

9:28

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