The Myth of Made in America

Tariffs are often sold as a way to re-shore manufacturing, but many small businesses have no viable alternatives to imports. 

Based on preliminary results from the new We Pay the Tariffs survey, 97% of respondents have been unable to identify any U.S. suppliers that can meet their product specifications and budget. 

In some of the most frustrating cases to read, small businesses are stuck paying the tariffs even though American manufacturers seem uninterested in selling more:

• “Tried to find American steel companies. None of them wanted to make our parts, which have a high scrap rate. Was even told by three of them ‘We let China handle that.’ I kept documentation.”

• “We import because U.S. suppliers are so much more expensive. Section 232 tariffs didn't ‘level the playing field’ because our U.S. suppliers just increased their prices to maintain most of the gap. So we keep importing, and we keep telling our U.S. suppliers that if they'd lower their prices -- just keep them where they were pre-tariffs! -- we'd be more likely to buy more often from them.”

What does exist is often prohibitively expensive:

• “90% of our sales is shelving. [There are] three main categories. Category 1 is made [in the U.S.] but is 3x our current cost. Categories 2 and 3 are not made anywhere in the U.S.”

• “Our hand bag that now retails for just under $100 would be more like $400 if somehow we could make it in the U.S.”

Beyond just costs, many companies report that U.S. production would still require imported materials that are subject to tariffs and skills that do not currently exist:

• “Have tried in the past to find U.S. suppliers. We are either too small, or what we need doesn't exist in the U.S. All the yarns we use for sweaters would be imported into the U.S.”

• “Most of our products and raw materials can't be sourced here. The U.S. companies we buy from are also importing the goods.”

• “There are no materials available domestically. There is no domestic production. There hasn’t been production of my categories in the U.S. for over 30 years.”

These are the types of experiences we seek to capture in our new survey – with the end goal of publishing a major tariff report. The more responses received, the more robust our results will be. 

Please add your experience by answering now and/or sharing this link with others that might be willing to respond.