As President-elect Donald Trump lays out his plan for increasing tariffs on goods made in China and Mexico, some U.S. businesses are stockpiling. Small business owner Jason Junod explains what he thinks the impacts of the proposed tariffs will be, and why he hasn’t been able to go fully “Made in America.” Further Reading: -American Companies Are Stocking Up to Get Ahead of Trump’s China Tariffs -Trump Fires Salvo on North American Trade Pact Further Listening: -China, an Alabama Business and a 20-Year Battle -Why China Is Risking a Trade War Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Jason Juno is the owner and founder of a skincare company called Bare Botanics. He sells scrubs and body brushes, and two of his products he imports from China. When did you start thinking about tariffs?
I started really thinking about them probably over the summer when Trump was campaigning. And he loved talking about tariffs, particularly tariffs from China.
The word tariff, properly used, is a beautiful word. One of the most beautiful words I've ever heard. It's music to my ears. We're going to charge them, I'm telling you right now, putting a 200% tariff on, which means they're unsellable. In other words, very simple. If you screw us, we screw you. Very simple.
Trump believes tariffs will bring jobs and manufacturing back to the U.S. But American business owners are wondering what impact these tariffs could have on their bottom line. Like Jason.
I said there's a real chance here of tariffs going up. And yeah, we would be totally impacted.
So on election night, Jason nervously watched the returns at a friend's place.
It's election night in America. Voters are having their say, your say.
And the countdown is on to the very first... Once it was clear to Jason that Donald Trump was on track to win, he knew he had to do something right then. What did you do?
I started messaging my suppliers. We got a short timeline here. There's not a lot of time for thinking. And I knew that it'd be morning in China and they would be responsive. And so I started messaging to place a big order.
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