How Colorado’s business community is dealing with on-again, off-again tariffs

As yet another round of higher tariffs began and then were paused on Wednesday, Sandi Moilanen over at the World Trade Center was certain about one thing. 

“Right now, the biggest need is accurate information, not speculative information,” Moilanen said. “Our role is to disseminate information … and help them cut through the noise.” 

The local World Trade Center’s client base tends to be small-to-midsize companies trying to navigate the world of global trade. Building a manufacturing plant in the United States isn’t a financial possibility. Many already searched for a closer manufacturer but due to the high cost to make goods here or the specialized nature of their products, the search sent them to other countries where they found a way to build on their business.

World Trade Center staff found themselves responding to the same questions for the past several days — were the new tariffs in addition to existing ones (yes, in most cases), what countries added retaliatory tariffs (staff can pull that up for clients) and what are ways to minimize fees (foreign trade zones might be an option). 

But finding answers in an ever-evolving trade war has been challenging with the abrupt policy switcharoos. Reciprocal tariffs of up to 50% started Wednesday, before President Donald Trump changed course and said around noon that he was lowering reciprocal tariffs to 10% on all countries for 90 days except for China.

Importers of goods made in China now face an even higher tariff of 125% after China retaliated and matched every increase Trump put on Chinese imports. 

And it’s not how tariffs were rolled out in the past. Countries typically target an industry or product, such as earlier U.S. tariffs on solar panels or China’s tariffs on soybeans. 

“This is a new approach, the blanket approach,” she said.

To help all businesses keep track of what may be happening, the organization set up a special tariff page on its website. The chart doesn’t spell out exact tariffs by country; rather, it points to the source and original documents so people can read it for themselves to determine the impact on their business. 

Importing from China: Plan A to Plan F 

“The biggest thing we can be doing is pointing to the resources that are the accurate implementation of what this all means,” Moilanen said. 

When outdoor clothing company Krimson Klover set its prices on its Fall 2025 line of sweaters in October, the tariff on imports from China was 7.5%. The Trump administration added another 10% in February (“Plan A,” Chief Operating Officer Gail Ross said), then another 10% in March (“Plan B”) and since then, several more iterations due to a tit-for-tat trade war with China have ensued. 

“So now we’re at 27.5% (in March), so that’s Plan C. Then we got an additional 34%, that was Plan D and well, yesterday, we were up to 104%, so now that’s Plan E,” said Ross on Wednesday. “And now it’s 125%. We have not figured out Plan F yet.”

In other words, imported goods from China that are valued at $1 million now face a tariff at U.S. Customs of $1.25 million. The company has put trade shows, marketing and travel on hold. 

She wishes the sweaters could be made in America, but she said there’s no “high-end Merino sweater production in the U.S.” or at least a manufacturer willing to take the order of the 13-employee Boulder company.

“Our option is not to bring us back to the States. It could be if the U.S. government would work with factories, make small business loans and help them really get, not just seamstresses because it’s not that kind of machine, but knitters,” Ross said. “Then you still need people who link the panels together. The point is if we want sweaters back in the States, that’s a five- to 10-year plan. That is not an overnight plan because it doesn’t exist here.”

Fixing a trade imbalance

Trump’s policies are an attempt to reduce the nation’s $36.2 trillion debt and address a trade imbalance. It’s causing all sorts of business chaos but what if it mends what’s wrong with global trade, asked Dan Caruso, managing director of investment firm Caruso Ventures who has long supported and invested in local companies. 

“Why do you go to Europe and not see any cars that were produced in the U.S.? Is it that the U.S. doesn’t know how to produce cars (or) because if you want to sell a U.S. car in Europe, good luck. The VAT taxes are way too high and the prices are way too inappropriate,” Caruso said. “We’re not starting with a level playing field. … People produce goods here in the U.S. and they’ve had to deal with unfair trade practices. We’ve been kind of complacent. They might be overdoing it now but we’re tackling it now.”

But he also understands that CEOs can’t run a business with so much uncertainty. They’re facing difficult decisions, such as whether to raise prices, lay off staff or slow down investments. 

“These are very real issues that affect people’s lives,” he said. “But I’m trying to put that in perspective with if we just let the status quo continue, which is what happened whether it’s been a Republican or Democrat administration for the last 20 years, this unfair trade practice. Now we’ve got people trying to do something about it. Should we at least try to understand it better before we throw a bunch of mud at it?

Whether or not company leaders are aligned with one political side or others, the uncertainty makes running a business difficult. Even top business leaders have complained about the economic disruption, including Republicans and Trump supporters, Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal. 

Earlier this week, U.S. Rep. Jeff Hurd, a Republican from Grand Junction, signed on to a bipartisan bill that seeks to place the role of setting and approving U.S. trade policy in the hands of Congress, not the executive branch. 

“As a constitutional conservative, I am proud to co-lead the Trade Review Act of 2025, reasserting our congressional responsibility in imposing tariffs,” Hurd said in a written statement. “This isn’t a political issue for me. I believe Congress must reclaim its constitutionally mandated authority, and I would support this measure regardless of who is in the White House.”

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, has all but stopped the measure in its tracks using parliamentary maneuvers. It was always unlikely to pass the Republican-controlled Congress.

Colorado’s economy has benefited from imports and exports. The value of imports grew in the pandemic as many consumers cut down on travel, gas and other expenses and put their money into home renovation and online shopping. While it’s declined since peaking in 2022, Colorado’s import value is still above where it was before the pandemic, up 28% since 2019 to $16.8 billion last year, according to U.S. Census trade data. 

Colin McIntosh, founder of sustainable bedding company Sheets & Giggles, has been concerned about the tariffs since the new administration began. 

His company started in Denver in 2017 and found a niche in the bedding industry with sheets made from lyocell fabric, or eucalyptus pulp. While he tried to find a U.S. manufacturer early on, only one manufacturer in India was willing to work with the startup. 

Ever since, he’s paid a 11.4% duty to import the Indian-made fabric to the U.S. As the business has grown, he’s invested in pillow assembly in Denver by using Mile High Workshop, a nonprofit that provides assembly and some manufacturing services and hires Coloradans who are rebuilding their lives after being homeless or incarcerated. 

He buys the fabric from an Indian manufacturer, but also uses a manufacturer in Bahrain so he’s not relying on just one source. He decided to shift all manufacturing to Bahrain, which will cost him 10% in import tariffs. That just gets him back to what he budgeted for. Before Trump’s pause, the added tariff on products from India was 26%, which would be stacked on top of the existing 11.4%. 

“This is a tariff I’ve paid for seven years, 11.4%. I have paid, I think it’s close to a million dollars at this point since I started the business,” McIntosh said. “I’ve said OK, I’ll budget this in. Then I built my financial model around this. If I sell 100,000 units in a year, 11% of my cost goes to Uncle Sam and I can budget around that and price around that. … What Donald Trump and the GOP have done is with six days’ notice, any inbound goods that I have, which I do have 5,000 units on the water right now, if I made them in India, I will have to pay 26% of that to U.S. Customs before I’m able to pick those goods up with my trucks.”

The uncertainty is the issue, he said. Even with the temporary reprieve, the uncertainty is still there so for now, he’s not reversing his decision to leave India, he said, “not when this stuff can change on a dime.”