MANCHESTER-The Vermont-based fly-fishing company Orvis is now facing pressures "at a pace that we haven't faced in our 170-year career," company president Simon Perkins said at a May 28 roundtable on tariffs hosted by U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vermont.
At Orvis's flagship rod shop and factory, Perkins said the Trump administration's shifting policies have not given businesses enough time to adapt their sourcing and manufacturing models to absorb the shock of tariffs.
"It's really hard for a business to respond quick enough to make it work," Perkins said. "That's when prices for consumers, that's when American jobs, that's when American manufacturing, that's when that gets put at risk."
Welch said he aims to highlight business leaders impacted by new tariff policies through roundtable discussions around the state. American business owners and consumers will bear the costs of tariffs, which Welch claimed are analogous to the "biggest tax increase in decades."
The Trump administration has changed course on tariff policies 21 times from February to May, according to reporting by Forbes.
Kevin Meyer of Mary Meyer Stuffed Toys, a wholesale toy manufacturer based out of Townshend, said he feels "lots of frustration" with the fast-paced changes to tariffs. He said one of the challenges as a business owner is staying informed and charting a way forward amid the uncertain impact of tariff policies.
This sentiment was echoed by many business leaders at the roundtable.
"How can you have a business that way?" Meyer said. "How can you plan for your new product lines that are coming out, how to price them, where to get them made?"
Vermont is one of 34 states that hold Canada as its top foreign trade partner, and many businesses nationwide are feeling the effects of erratic tariff policy, Welch said.
Recently, he and four other congressional colleagues met with the Canadian prime minister and other officials to help restore the relationship, but he said "that requires us to get back on track to a mutually beneficial trade regime."
Tim Miles, the fourth-generation owner of building supplier R.K. Miles, Inc., said his business relies on price stability for wood products sourced from Canada or hardware supplies sourced abroad.
He said his customers are often spending large sums to build or renovate their homes and need to plan ahead for costs, but that sudden tariffs are causing "a lot of confusion in the marketplace for our customers."
David Black and Anja Wrede, who contract with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and create specialty bikes and mobility equipment for those with disabilities through their company, RAD Innovations Inc., based in Cornwall, said they source specialized components from around the world for their bike designs.
Black said sourcing specialized components locally for bikes designed to fit the needs of each outdoor recreator is "logistically impossible to imagine." He said the erratic nature of the Trump administration's tariff policies undermines the company's dependability and survival.
Coral Vogel Cutting, owner of Brattleboro-based Back Roads Granola, said the 20 ingredients essential for her organic, non-GMO, vegan granola cannot be grown locally, so the company is forced to bear the cost of tariffs. She said the company does not have much leeway to increase its prices to recoup costs, as customers already pay "top dollar" for the high-quality product.
"We cannot source the quantities of ingredients that we need for most of our products within the United States. It just does not exist," Vogel Cutting said. "We've built our brand around making a very clean product, and now we're being penalized for that."
Perkins, of the Orvis fly-fishing equipment company, said the continued uncertainty with the Trump administration's tariff policies will "stall out innovation" because businesses have to plan ahead for pricing and demand before taking a risk on a new product.
"Innovation starts with strategy, and the strategy starts with the customer and understanding the marketplace," Perkins said. "If that's unknown, it's really hard to understand how you're going to build that pathway to innovation."
Welch said he is concerned with the Trump administration's tariff policies using a "very blunt instrument in an arbitrary way." Although the Constitution gives Congress the power to set tariffs, it allowed the executive branch to take on that role through the Trade Act of 1974.
"It's been distressing to me that many of my colleagues are accepting the utilization of that limited authority that was given at a time when it was more restrained, and are not insisting that we take back the capacity in Congress to do what the Constitution provides us with the authority to do," Welch said.
The same day Vermont business leaders met in Manchester, the U.S. Court of International Trade found the tariffs unconstitutional. The panel of judges ruled that the broad 10% tariff on most of foreign U.S. trading partners and the specific tariff policies against Canada, China, and Mexico for national security reasons exceeded the authority of the executive branch.
But the decision was temporarily halted the following day by the U.S. Court of Appeals, so tariffs will continue to be imposed for now.
This story was republished with permission from VTDigger, which offers its reporting at no cost to local news organizations through its Community News Sharing Project. To support this work, please visit vtdigger.org/donate.
This News item by Greta Solssa originally appeared in VTDigger and was republished in The Commons with permission.