Saturday, June 14, 2025
Business owners across Long Island are preparing for the price-raising results of President Trump’s tariffs, pushing some to raise their own prices, scale back spending and delay future investments.
Trump increased tariffs on imports from a wide range of countries as part of an effort to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign manufacturing and revive domestic industry.
Amina Iduma, who runs L’ami African Market, on Merrick Road in Lynbrook, said she was notified by her Nigerian wholesalers that her next shipment would arrive with a 14 percent cost increase.
While Nigeria faces a lower tariff rate than higher-profile countries like China, Iduma said the broader effect on shipping and import prices is affecting all of her goods.
Some residents see the pain as necessary.
“Stick through the tariffs and we will have a strong country again,” Nicholas Siciliano, a Lynbrook resident, said.
China, which accounts for roughly 13.4 percent of U.S. imports, has seen its average tariff rate soar from 34 percent to 145 percent under the latest trade measures. The steep hikes marked a clear effort to decouple supply chains from what U.S. officials view as an overreliance on a geopolitical rival.
Brendan McCaffrey, owner of Mr. Holiday’s Lighting in Lynbrook, said this year’s shipments are already en route and largely exempt from the new tariffs.
But that reprieve may be short-lived.
“Most distributors already have their containers on ships already and are avoiding the tariffs,” McCaffrey said. “This year should be OK, but next year will be the big question mark.”
At CompuCell World in Carle Place, owner Jose Cardona said he had no choice but to raise prices after the cost of lithium batteries and phone accessories jumped by 20 percent. Cardona sources his products from Phone LCD Parts, a New Jersey distributor that imports most of its inventory from China.
“We have to keep working anyway,” Cardona said. “But I hope it doesn't become unsustainable.”
While the administration argues the move will bring back manufacturing jobs and reduce American dependence on foreign goods, economic data and business accounts suggest the near-term cost burden is falling largely on U.S. companies and consumers.
Andrew Spieler, a finance professor at Hofstra University, said the effect of tariffs is being felt most immediately in pricing and consumer demand.
“Companies don’t want to raise prices, wages are not going up as much as prices, and you’d expect to see a drop in demand,” Spieler said. “That slows down the economy.”
He said policy uncertainty has made financial markets more volatile.
“When you don’t know what to do, you usually do the safe thing,” Spieler said. “It’s like a game of poker. Who’s gonna blink first?”
Udayan Roy, an economics professor at Long Island University, agrees. He said that while the tariffs are meant to target foreign producers, they are effectively a tax on American buyers.
Roy warned that U.S. companies that rely on imported materials may become less competitive globally. “America is already close to full employment,” he said. “So even if foreign producers relocate their production factories to the U.S., where will their workers come from?”
Domestic alternatives, he added, are likely to become more expensive as demand shifts away from imports.
Steve Silverman, who runs Morton’s Official Camp Outfitter, in Cedarhurst, said he has not yet raised prices, but he expects that to change. “The prices are being absorbed as of right now, and I haven’t seen an increase in prices just yet,” he said.
Most of his merchandise, Silverman said, is made in China, and price increases could take effect after the tariff exemption for low-value imports from China, which allowed duty-free entry for goods under $800, ended last Friday.
Alan Geller, chief executive of Fun World, a costume company based in Carle Place, said that his annual production costs would nearly triple — from $35 million to almost $100 million — if the 145 percent tariff on Chinese imports remained in effect.
On Friday, Geller met with executives from NextVein, a medical device maker in Huntington; Worksman Cycles, a Queens bicycle manufacturer; and Bernstein Display, a Manhattan mannequin supplier, to discuss the effects of Trump’s tariff policy on their businesses. U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Glen Cove hosted the event, after business owners said they were caught off guard by the speed and scale of the tariff rollout.
Fun World has been forced to suspend its employee profit-sharing program for the first time in over 60 years, and cut pay by 20 percent across the company.
Geller said the company had considered moving operations to a factory it owns in Pennsylvania, but such a shift would take years.
“The rapid rollout of the tariffs has left U.S. manufacturers with little room to change how they operate,” he said.
He added that if the tariffs remain in place, Fun World may be forced to shut down.
For many Long Island business owners, the more urgent question is how to stay afloat, Geller said.
“Nobody wants to increase prices,” Geller said. “But there’s just no way that we can absorb some of these price increases.”
