Joe Bell: Ongoing trade war limits recovery for U.S. businesses

With vaccination rates increasing and businesses reopening across the country, there’s good reason for optimism. Businesses that have struggled to survive the challenges posed by the covid-19 pandemic are finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

For businesses across the nation, however, there is still a big obstacle before them as the Biden administration has so far left the former president’s tariffs on imports from China in place. Unless President Joe Biden and United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai move to repeal those tariffs, there will be a large number of businesses and workers who won’t fully enjoy the fruits of the economic recovery.

While the former administration claimed that tariffs and its trade war with China would give American businesses a competitive edge, it has actually made things harder for them. That’s because tariffs aren’t paid by China, they are paid directly to the government by the companies who import the things they need to make their businesses work. The higher the tariffs, the greater the costs of keeping a business afloat.

This is something I’ve experienced firsthand. One of my companies sells water coolers and, as is the case for other industries, tariffs affect just about every facet of what we make and how we do business. Some components like thermostats, compressors and relays simply aren’t available anywhere else, meaning the costs of the coolers we make goes up no matter which country they’re manufactured in.

We did receive exclusions in 2018, 2019 and 2020 from some of the tariffs that were put in place, which was especially helpful as we navigated the shifting business landscape the pandemic caused. However, those exclusions have now expired and, unless we’re given a new exclusion or the trade war finally ends, we’ll be right back to square one.

All of this amounts to a perfect storm for companies like mine. Just as we’re coming out of the pandemic thinking the future is bright, we’re being hit with the same tariffs we originally received exclusions for three years ago. If that doesn’t change, the impact could be immense. For example, if our industry was stuck with 25% tariffs for all of 2021 on just water coolers imported from China, the total cost would be $42 million across the industry. That simply is not sustainable.

Our industry isn’t alone. Countless other businesses across the U.S. are facing the prospect of paying exorbitant tariffs, and will no doubt be forced to either raise prices for their customers or lay off employees. This, of course, would all come right as the economy is picking itself back up.

We need Biden and Tai to do what’s right for businesses, employees and families across the country and bring the trade war to an end. By removing the holdover tariffs from the Trump administration, they can signal that they are finally ready to turn the page on these failed trade wars and get our economy back on track.

This should be a time for businesses to look forward to brighter days ahead, not worry about how they’ll manage to offset the costs of tariffs. Finally bringing this trade war to an end would signal that the administration truly is dedicated to a full-scale economic recovery that benefits families, workers, and businesses.

Joe Bell is vice president of sales and marketing for Aqua Filter Fresh in Pittsburgh.