Small Importers Are Paying $306,000 More in Tariffs Per Year
A new analysis from the Center for American Progress puts a number on what small importers already feel in their bank accounts: the average small business importer paid $306,000 more in tariffs between March 2025 and February 2026 compared to the prior year.
For the smallest firms — those with fewer than 50 employees — the average increase was $175,000.
The Data
| Business Size | Average Annual Tariff Increase |
|---|---|
| All small importers | $306,000 |
| Under 50 employees | $175,000 |
| 50-499 employees | $450,000+ |
Tariff bills have tripled year-over-year for many small businesses. A March 2026 NFIB survey found that 53% of small businesses report increased supplier costs, with tariffs cited as the primary driver.
Small-business bankruptcies rose 11% in 2025. Not all of that is tariffs — but for importers, it's the single biggest cost increase they've faced.
Real Businesses, Real Numbers
Travis Reid, Square 1 Art (Atlanta):
"My duty tax for my imports went from $10,000 last year to $55,000."
That's a 450% increase for a small business owner who didn't change what he imports or how much. The tariffs changed. He didn't get a warning.
Patrice Hull, Stuff We Wanna Say (Atlanta):
"I feel like I'm going backwards."
Her margins were already thin. A 20-40% increase in landed costs on imported goods doesn't leave room for a small business to absorb the hit.
An anonymous importer on r/smallbusiness:
"I received a DHL bill for $2,483 in duties on a $3,380 order of aluminum parts from China. Can this be right?"
It was right. The effective tariff rate on that shipment was 73%.
Why It's Happening
The cumulative effect of multiple tariff layers stacking on top of each other:
- Base MFN duty: 0-20% depending on the product
- Section 301 tariffs (China): 7.5-25% on top
- Section 232 tariffs (metals): Now 50% on steel/aluminum/copper
- Section 122 baseline: 10% on virtually everything
- Fentanyl-related duties (China): 20% additional
- De minimis elimination: Duties now apply to ALL shipments, not just those over $800
For Chinese imports, these stack. An apparel importer from China faces: 10% base + 20% fentanyl + 7.5-25% Section 301 = 37.5-55% total effective rate.
What Small Importers Are Doing
The businesses surviving are doing some combination of:
- Raising prices. Passing costs to consumers — but customers have limits.
- Cutting margins. Absorbing some cost — but margins are already thin.
- Switching suppliers. Moving to non-China sources — but Section 301 probes into Vietnam/India threaten this.
- Reducing inventory. Ordering less, just-in-time — but stockout risk increases.
- Exiting product lines. Dropping imported products that no longer pencil out.
What almost none of them are doing: monitoring tariff changes in real-time. Most find out about rate changes when the bill arrives, not before the shipment sails.
The Cost of Being Surprised
The $306,000 average includes both expected and unexpected tariff costs. But the unexpected ones are the killers — goods in transit when rates change, orders placed at old prices that arrive at new rates, exclusions that expire without notice.
One caught change before a $50,000 shipment can save $2,500-$12,500 in unexpected duties. Multiply that across a year of shipments and the math is obvious.
Source
Center for American Progress Analysis | WSB-TV Small Business Interviews | NRF Consumer Impact Estimates
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