Small businesses can minimize trade-war impact

The Trump administration has so far avoided a trade fight with Europe by temporarily exempting it from hefty steel and aluminum tariffs. Yet the move also extends the uncertainty weighing on small businesses that use those materials, a much broader group than you might think.

For example, Gary Cammack, the owner of Cammack Ranch Supply in Union Center, South Dakota, is worried that he will have to raise prices on steel barbed wire that he sells to area ranchers, from $60.95 a roll to as high as $67.

And Erin Calvo-Bacci, co-owner of chocolate maker CB Stuffers, based in Swampscott, Massachusetts, is concerned that the duties will ultimately lead to higher prices for the steel tables, rolling racks and molds she buys.

Trump slapped 25 percent duties on steel and 10 percent on aluminum in March, citing national-security concerns and harm to U.S. metals manufacturers from imports. Yet he excluded the European Union and six other countries, easing the blow and leaving the tariffs imposed on just 30 percent of steel imports. On Monday, he extended the EU’s exemption for a month.

The extension comes just as U.S. officials travel to China on Thursday and Friday for talks on a separate trade dispute.

Amid all the uncertainty, here are strategies for small businesses to ease the blow of trade fights: