SEATTLE — On Wednesday, a half-dozen businesses, the Port of Seattle, and the Port of Tacoma stood with Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell to support her Tariff Review bill — a measure that would reassert Congress’s role over taxation and trade policy in the wake of sweeping tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump.
Businesses like KAVU, Tutta Bella, Fulcrum Coffee Roasters, Access Laser, Molly Moon’s Ice Cream, and Swaddle Designs spoke about the ways tariffs are impacting their bottom line.
“In my 32 years of design and manufacturing, KAVU has survived some tough times, but nothing close to this,” owner Barry Barr said, adding that while they were able to eat some of the tariffs early on, recent tariffs mean they have to raise prices because they cost more than the product itself.
For Swaddle Designs, they have $200,000 of product sitting in a container in China, because the tariffs alone would cost them $300,000 to bring it into the country.
“We worry about keeping the business alive, keeping everything on track with our customers we have. We are in a price-sensitive business,” said COO Jeff Damir, who began the business with his wife, Lynette, who is the company’s president.
One of their large clients is hospitals that buy the swaddles to send home to new parents, he worries that increasing the cost will lead those providers to stop buying their product.
20 years ago, the Damirs started the business by manufacturing swaddles in Seattle. Then, during COVID, the supplier in North Carolina shut down, partly due to aging equipment.
“We couldn’t recruit sewers and folks to do the sewing here in town. We were having trouble getting the fabric that we needed to be competitive with what the young parents were looking for. And so with that, and the competitive pressures on price, we started to go overseas," Damir said.
Tariffs are impacting businesses whose main product isn’t imported. Take Molly Moon’s Ice Cream. The owner, Molly Moon, says more than 90% of the ingredients for the ice cream itself are sourced from local farms and ranches. However, the spoons and cups are threatening to break the business.
“The current structure will cost us about $240,000 this year. That’s like almost half of my total anticipated profit for 2025. And about 90,000 of that is just the spoons coming from China with that 145% tariff,” Moon said. “The uncertainty is driving small businesses across Seattle, across Washington, across the country, crazy. We can’t operate like this. We won’t be profitable.”
Washington GOP Chair Jim Walsh says, especially with China, tariffs are about a message.
“The purpose isn’t to shut down any supply chain. The purpose isn’t to make hardship for any producer. The purpose is using precision to make sure all sides are playing fairly," Walsh said. “It’s not to disrupt trade agreements, it is to make sure that our trading partners in China are acting in good faith.”
Damir is supporting a letter from U.S. House Representatives, calling for tariff exceptions for baby-oriented products, like what Swaddle Designs specializes in. Walsh says the best tariffs are narrowly focused and limited in time, so he would support something like that.
“You’ve got to always be able to have reasonable exceptions, reasonable accommodations. And I think most of the administration’s trade policies do those things," said Walsh.
Sen. Cantwell’s bill passed the Senate earlier this month. She says she is hopeful that Representatives in the House will come back from the current recess ready to pass the House version of the bill.
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