this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2025
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US small business owner says China tariffs endanger her company: ‘I could lose my home’ (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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The Minnesota veteran invented a placemat with bungee cords that hold toys or utensils, keeping them off the floor when babies toss them. It’s one of several products she created for Busy Baby, a company she runs with her brother. They are manufactured in China.

She expected and budgeted for about 20-30% tariffs this year. When the first round of tariffs came in at 10%, it was manageable. Then the rate on China crept up, then up again, to 54%. That was her “oh, shit moment”, but she thought she could weather it, she told the Guardian.

It didn’t stop there, though. It climbed up to 104%. She filmed a video of herself “mid-meltdown” over the extreme tariff, posting it on her social media.

Benike already paid about $160,000 to manufacture her products in China, and would have to pay more than that to bring them to the US. So for now, she’s trying to figure out other options: she could try to sell them overseas, or send them to another country to repackage them.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Why doesn't she just find a US supplier, isn't that the intended outcome of tariffs?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Yeah just go on down to the factory outlet. Tons of factories there.

Manufacturing doesn't exist in the US. Not at any significant scale. That industry has long left, and it's not coming back unless it is cost effective to do so.

Do tariffs make it cost effective? Probably not. Americans are expensive to employ, comparably. We'd have to lower/remove minimum wage and automate away as many jobs as possible, or else the price will surely rise more than just dealing with the tarrif.

And even if it were cost effective to manufacture here, you can't just spin up that size of industry at the drop of a hat. Especially if you're in the middle of deporting all the construction workers and enticing all of the engineers to flee to Europe.

Better than tarrifs would be carbon surcharges on HFO. That's who should be feeling the heat from global trade, as the emissions from it are by far the most damning part of it for all of us. If you were honestly looking to correct a market injustice with an iron fist. The charge still ultimately gets passed onto the consumer, but this way would encourage domestic manufacture and development of greener cargo transport.

Really just any carbon tax tho. The reason I point to HFO specifically is because it's probably the worst part of global trade at the moment. If you're going to start somewhere with new taxes and actually fix something (anything), that's likely the best place to start. We've been mortgaging the habitability of our planet to subsidize the cargo ships. It's absurd.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

No. She's supposed to CREATE the factory and make jobs, you know, immediately.