‘We’re barely hanging on’: How Idaho businesses are paying for Trump’s tariffs

Small businesses in Idaho say they’re bearing the brunt of a slew of new taxes imposed by President Donald Trump on goods imported from other countries. And though the state hasn’t seen as much of an impact as other parts of the U.S., a national research firm estimated that Idaho businesses spent $41 million more on tariffs just in the first half of this year compared with the same period in 2024.

In the first six months of this year, Idaho businesses spent about $67 million on additional tariffs imposed by Trump, according to a Washington, DC-based economic research firm called Trade Partnership Worldwide. The firm uses import data to track the U.S. state the products are entering and the cost of the tariffs on those goods, its president, Dan Anthony, told the Idaho Statesman. They compared those taxes with the tariffs approved by Congress that have been in place for decades.

That represents more than a 150% increase over 2024, when Idaho businesses paid about $26 million over the same period.

By Anthony’s count, Idaho has been hit less hard by tariffs than many other states, in part because of Idaho’s small economy and inland location, without any major ports where goods enter. As of June, about 22% of Idaho’s imports were subject to presidential tariffs, compared with about 46% of imports in other states.

Trump has said that with the new tariffs, he aims to bring manufacturing home to the U.S. and rebalance the country’s trade relationships. But Idaho small businesses don’t have extra money saved to afford unexpected tax hikes, said Josh Hartung, the CEO of Holstery, a Moscow-based startup that produces tool belts.

“We’re operating on razor-thin margins,” Hartung said. He and his 20-odd employees source many of their materials from overseas, especially from China, and manufacture the final product in Idaho.

Imposing tariffs is usually Congress’s job. To do so without congressional approval, the Trump administration invoked a 1977 law, which allows the president to seize assets and block transactions during a national emergency.

When the Trump administration announced 135% tariffs on imported Chinese goods in April, Hartung faced a $78,000 tariff bill on top of a $50,000 order of magnets.

“It was existential,” he said.

In the months since, the Trump administration dropped its tariff on magnets to 35%, which Hartung said was still “painful” for his business.

Hartung has always aimed to bring more manufacturing back to the U.S., he said. But the U.S. simply doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to support much of the manufacturing he currently outsources to China, he told the Statesman. The money Hartung is now forced to pay on tariffs also impedes him from investing in the machinery Holstery would need to bring more of the manufacturing in-house, he said.

“Ask yourself, as a small manufacturer, ‘What else can I do with that money?’ ” he said. “I would have actually used that money that I paid in tariffs to build more manufacturing in the U.S. But instead, I gave it to the least efficient user of that type of money. I gave it to the government for them to finance their bloat and waste.”

Idaho companies say U.S. manufacturers can’t compete

It’s not easy to track imported products’ final destination, Anthony said.

If goods are stored in a warehouse in one state before being sold in another, that warehouse may be listed as the goods’ final destination. Fresh flowers, for example, are mostly imported through a Miami port. Bananas, meanwhile, typically enter through Delaware, Anthony said.

Take Mike Buechi and Laurie Sebestyen. The Boise husband-and-wife duo have for nearly 20 years run Mike’s Organic Curry Love, which imports organic curry paste from Thailand. Because they store their imported products in a warehouse in Chicago, Anthony’s data likely counts their tariffs as a cost paid by an Illinois business, not an Idaho one.

Until 2020, they paid no tariffs on the products. But late that year, Congress allowed a program to encourage trade with developing countries to expire, slapping Mike’s Organic Curry Love with a 7% tariff. They faced whiplash again this year as the Trump administration first announced a tariff in April, then dropped the amount, then raised it again in August. All told, the pair now owes 26% in tariffs on every shipment from Thailand.

“We’re barely hanging on,” Buechi said. They’re in debt, he added, and they’re torn about what to tell their suppliers back in Thailand.

Sebestyen has met with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, who was sympathetic, she said. But because these aren’t congressionally approved tariffs, she said, it seemed there was little he could do.

“Right now, their hands are kind of tied, I believe, because the administration is going it alone,” she said.

When asked for a comment, David Pace, a spokesperson for Crapo, directed the Statesman to an interview with NewsTalk 107.9, where Crapo said he had been nervous about the effect of tariffs at first, but that they were starting to work, prompting trade deals and bringing in government revenue. In the interview, he acknowledged that tariffs may harm Americans in the short term and floated the idea of using tariff revenue for “support payments” to the people affected.

Buechi and Sebestyen said they hope the administration will change direction.

“We just have to wait and see,” Sebestyen said. “We’re trying to stay positive, but we do have sleepless nights where we think, you know, ‘What are we going to do?’”

In an April letter to U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, Cassive Abel – the CEO of Wild Rye, which makes women’s outdoor apparel – said she originally partnered with a domestic factory to make her products.

“But doing so almost sank our business before we even launched,” she wrote. “The product was flawed, delivery was late, our U.S. ‘partners’ took no accountability for their mistakes and the communication was poor.”

In response, her team began to work with Chinese manufacturers, who have “consistently delivered high-quality products on time,” she wrote.

“While I hope one day there can be options for domestic manufacturing,” she added, “the reality is these options don’t currently exist.”

Madison Hardy, a spokesperson for Risch, did not respond to a request for comment.

Uncertainty of tariffs ‘terrible’ for business, CEO says

When the Trump administration announced its tariffs in April, it offered a grace period: If shipments were already on their way from a country subject to tariffs, they could get in under the wire if they arrived within a certain window.

That was good news for Buechi and Sebestyen, of Mike’s Organic Curry Love, who had a container of curries headed their way from Thailand.

“We breathed a sigh of relief for a moment,” Sebestyen said.

It didn’t last long.

As companies rushed to place orders before tariffs took effect, ports jammed up. The couple’s product arrived at the port in Vancouver on time but got stuck in line. By the time the ship registered with Customs and Border Protection officials, it had missed the tariff exemption by one day. And it cost them $10,000 in tariffs.

It was money they didn’t have as a two-person company. Many months, the pair don’t take a salary for themselves. They’ve got lenders breathing down their necks. And they’re hesitant to raise their prices.

The cost of the tariffs is formidable, Sebestyen said – but so is the volatility and unpredictability of the way they’re being imposed. How could she and Buechi plan ahead on how much to order when the cost of tariffs changes every 90 days? How could they advise the farmers they work with in Thailand on how much ginger to plant?

Casey Ames, who makes toys, clothing and other products for kids with sensory sensitivity or disabilities, ran into similar issues. After April media coverage of the untenable spike his company, Harkla, faced in tariffs, he got an offer from a New York company to produce Harkla’s sensory swing for $129. That swing retails for $124.

But few manufacturers would be willing to invest in new infrastructure – new plants or factories – in the U.S. when trade relationships are so volatile and unstable, he predicted.

“Are you going to get a million-dollar loan from the bank to build your own manufacturing plant at this point, when everything changes every 90 days?” he asked. “It doesn’t matter what direction it is. Uncertainty is terrible for businesses.”