Tariffs and the Impact on Small Business, Manufacturing, and Supply Chains

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What's the likelihood that small businesses will see tariff relief any time soon?  

Given the Trump Administration’s aggressive response to the Supreme Court’s decision, in which he promised to maintain or increase tariffs on importers of foreign goods using other sections of the Trade Act of 1974, it seems unlikely that material tariff relief for small businesses is coming soon.

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How Section 122 Tariffs Are Being Challenged

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At least two separate cases have now been filed at the Court of International Trade seeking to stop the Trump administration from utilizing Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act to impose tariffs on all imports into the U.S.

Learn more about Section 122 and ST&R's update.

Fighting Culture Wars

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The Trump administration wants to be: withdrawing from the military’s conventional arenas, like preparing for possible conflict with rival great powers and instead fighting, with overwhelming shows of swaggering force, the kinds of battles prioritized by online reactionaries. It wants to be fighting those culture wars in other theaters as well, promoting right-wing politics across Europe and encouraging a clampdown on migration not just in the United States but globally.

It's a sad place we are in.  

As David Wallace-Wells's opinion piece for The New York Times (12/10) says:  "Hence a “president of peace” presiding over 22 attacks (and counting) on boats in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, unilaterally pushing regime change in Venezuela and treating migrants living peacefully and for decades within the borders of the United States with such violence and cruel indifference that it has inspired rebukes from the new American pope and the conference of American bishops, long seen as an implacably conservative force in U.S. politics."

Trump's Sweeping Tariffs EXCEED His Authority

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Trump’s tariffs are headed to the Supreme Court after a court ruled them illegal.  A federal appeals court relied on recent Supreme Court rulings when it found President Trump's sweeping tariffs exceed his authority.

Last week, a federal appeals court found that President Donald Trump’s imposition of sweeping tariffs on billions of dollars of goods coming into the U.S. exceeded presidential authority.

Will the Supreme Court side with Trump?  If they do, it provides further evidence of what many Americans fear: that this court has a different set of rules for the Trump administration.

We'll See Where Tipping the Scales Will Get Us

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According to NewsNation, there are five (5) pressing issues facing the new Trump administration:

1. Ceasefire negotiations
2. The economy
3. Border enforcement
4. Russia-Ukraine war
5. January 6 pardons

Trump has vowed to take swift action on various policies, but the five issues above appear to loom heaviest.  We'll see where tipping the scales will get us – on each issue.

U.S. Puts the Brakes on Entrepreneurship From Other Countries

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Shameful.  The Trump administration has put the brakes on a program to encourage entrepreneurs from other countries to start and grow businesses here. It's now on hold and the delay could be damaging and possibly permanent.

The discouraging signal  to entrepreneurs may well crush their interest in America and send them to India, Ireland and other countries eager to reach the innovation big leagues.

If we care about creating jobs, we must let foreign-born founders work their magic in America.  Immigrants such as Elon Musk, of Tesla and SpaceX fame; Sergey Brin of Google, Aart De Geus of Synopsys, Jerry Yang of Yahoo, Lyndon Rive of SolarCity, Sehat Sutardja and Weili Dai of Marvell and Patrick Lo of NetGear, all have created great enduring enterprises.

Here's a perfect ending to the article below:

A global economy has built America’s success over the past 50 years. If “America first” translates to isolationism — discouraging even legal immigration of the best and brightest — it will not make us “great” again.

Read more here.