A tea plantation in Japan, a shoe company in Montreal, a chocolatier in Mexico: small businesses around the world have been shaken by President Donald Trump’s ever-changing trade policies.
The rules of trade have changed strategies, pricing, logistics and investments as companies try to inform and retain their American customers. Some small companies, operating on razor-thin margins, are questioning or pausing their U.S. expansion plans. We spoke to six companies, from Sweden to Brazil, about how they connect with customers and manage uncertainty. Here’s what they said.
For a Swedish designer, sales rose and then fell.
Asket, a Stockholm-based clothing company, sent an email to its U.S. customers in mid-August warning of potential price increases and the end of the low-value goods tax credit, which allowed goods worth less than $800 to enter duty-free. “This communication is not very exciting,” said August Bard Bringius, co-founder and CEO of Asket. But this sparked a buying spree, with US sales doubling within 10 days.
The company maintained price stability, which affected its profit margins. “It will likely have to change,” Bard Bringius said, adding, “We will need to raise prices in the future to make up for what we are losing now.” Exports from the European Union to the United States are now subject to a 15% tariff.
The uncertainty has been frustrating. “It’s not like all the European brands will suddenly start manufacturing in the U.S.; that’s impossible,” Bard Bringius said.
The United States is one of the Swedish retailer’s largest markets, but U.S. sales fell in the third quarter, when the minimum ended, and are now about 20% lower than a year ago.
“I think there’s a general aversion, probably, to buying from European brands because you have this idea that you’re going to be hit with tariffs or that your order is going to be hit with customs duties and taxes,” Bard Bringius said.
A Canadian shoe seller has temporarily halted its expansion into the United States.
Before the minimum expired, Montreal-based shoe company Maguire told its American customers that it would ship products from its U.S. stores and encouraged them to place orders before the loophole closed. This was followed by a rise in US orders.
About a week later, Maguire sent another email announcing the price increase. It has raised prices by $10 to $30 in both the U.S. and Canada, said Miriam Belzil-Maguire, president and co-founder.
The company has two stores in the United States, its second largest market, but is waiting to open more. “I want to hope for more stability,” Belzil-Maguire said.
A Brazilian coffee producer is waiting for American customers to return.
After a 50% tariff on Brazilian coffee choked off U.S. orders, Ana Cecilia Veloso, whose family owns São Luiz Estate Coffee in Carmo do Paranaiba, Brazil, planned to opt out of a coffee expo in San Diego to market her beans. Now that those fees have been cancelled, she’s considering going, but she’s cautious. “I need to wait for the market to stabilize,” he wrote in one message, adding: “I will wait for my clients to come to me.”
Before the tariffs were imposed, Mariana Veron Gutierrez, founder and CEO of Tico Coffee Roasters in Campbell, California, was planning to import Veloso coffee. “If the tariffs had not reached this level, her coffee would be here in my warehouse right now,” she said.
Now she is looking forward to getting her hands on Brazilian coffee as soon as possible. Although she is optimistic that interest rates will not change again this year, she is cautious. “What is your emergency plan if something changes?” She said. “It could be tariffs again, or it could be something else.”
A Japanese matcha producer opens a branch in the United States of America.
Daiki Tanaka, who grows and sells matcha in Japan, meets many of his American customers during tours and tastings at his 10-acre farm, called D:Matcha, near Kyoto.
But the end of the minimum exemption this year means that many of its shipments to the US now carry a 15% tariff. The company responded by creating a US subsidiary to import and distribute tea, absorbing the tariffs for US customers who constituted the largest direct-to-consumer market. “Communication is important, so the fare issue makes everything a little more complicated,” Tanaka said.
Lauren Purvis, founder of Mizuba Tea Company in Portland, Oregon, imported more than 20 tons of matcha from small farms and farmers in Japan last year. This year, Purvis said, tariffs have cost her more than $110,000, and trade politics have led to long delivery delays: She had more than $120,000 worth of Japanese matcha, shipped in August and September, in Kentucky. She is still waiting for about half of that offer.
In recent weeks, the Trump administration has suspended some tariffs, including those on green tea. But Purvis wishes it had been planned more carefully from the beginning. “All it did was increase costs,” she said. “I think it’s hard to shake the feeling of, ‘What’s the point of this?’
Mexican chocolate maker sends customers to Canada.
Victor Feliu, owner of Feliu Chocolate in Guadalajara, Mexico, was so confused by the ever-changing rules of trade between neighboring countries that he temporarily halted shipping to the United States.
“I’m willing to pay the fees and I’m willing to do the paperwork,” he said. “But it is very difficult if the rules change every few months.”
Although its chocolate bars are not subject to tariffs, it temporarily halted shipments to the United States in early September after more than a dozen packages were returned due to complications posed by the new rules, which covered things like labeling, documentation and registration, he said. It took Feliu weeks to track down the new requirements for small shipments. “We’re a small company, and no one tells us,” he said.
He suggested that American customers buy the chocolate through a Canadian retailer, and his plans to sell through American stores were put on hold.
For the Danish retailer, mistakes cost money.
Tariff-related mistakes have proven costly for Cecilie Mosgaard, co-founder of Danish accessories retailer Lié Studio.
“We are seeing a lot of these errors, which means our import duties are much higher than they should be,” Mosgaard said. She said that on several occasions, Lié Studio bags shipped to the United States were mislabeled as originating in China — and subject to tariffs of up to 25% — instead of Portugal, where they were manufactured, which charges a lower tax. Mistakes mean unexpected costs and time spent trying to get a refund, which you’re still waiting for.
The company, which sells jewelry and handbags online and at U.S. retailers, raised prices for American customers by about 20% in mid-August.