We Pay the Tariffs

In Missouri City, Texas, a manufacturing company with fewer than 50 employees is doing exactly what policymakers often say they want: producing goods in the United States . Yet this year, the company has paid more than $1 million in additional tariffs . The reason is straightforward. While final production happens domestically, some raw materials must be sourced overseas — inputs that simply aren’t available in the U.S. at the scale or specifications required. As the company put it: “I am a...

Cosmodio Instruments is a five-person company in Bedford, Massachusetts, designing and hand-assembling electronic musical instruments in the United States. It’s exactly the kind of small manufacturing business policymakers often say they want to support . But tariffs are making that work harder, not easier. While Cosmodio designs, builds, and assembles its products domestically, it relies on materials like PCBs and electronic components that are largely unavailable in the U.S. — or only...

Babco Foods International, a New Jersey–based company, has spent more than two decades building a stable business. This year, that stability has unraveled — not because of falling demand or mismanagement, but because of  tariffs that have drained the company’s cash flow at an unprecedented rate . Babco shared the reality they are facing : “Babco Foods is suffering huge cash-flow issues as a result of paying 50% in tariff on goods imported from India. We are a 22-year-old company . This is the...