Oregon business owners decry 'whipsawing' tariffs
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Erica Mitchell, the CEO of Hood River Distillers, is very concerned about the on-again/off-again tariffs President Trump imposed on most countries. The worst part is not knowing what's coming or what's going to happen.
"Our people have to be looking at where we can source other materials, and they just can't be, you know, whipsawing," Mitchell said at a Monday roundtable with other business executives and US Sen. Ron Wyden. "We've got to be sourcing from China, we've got to be sourcing from Mexico, Well now there's not a tariff for Mexico, we've got to source from the U.S. It's just there is so much uncertainty, we just can't be asking much more of our people."
Wyden hosted the roundtable at the Port of Portland where he heard a number of business leaders say they're already feeling the consequences of these tariffs.
Oregon's senior senator said Americans want predictability and certainty, two things Trump is not giving them.
"I can just tell you our state, around the country, people just never thought that you get hit with these extra costs," Wyden said. "These costs are completely contrary to what everybody said was going to get done in the campaign."
"Everybody is waiting to play chicken right now and see what's going to happen before we raise prices," said Greg Hogan, the general manager of Dave Smith Decoys.
"They have clients and customers who are making adjustments, making decisions that will cost them more and not six months from now," Wyden said, "but they're starting to see the costs come in and hit them in the wallet very hard."
He also talked about his Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes on Imported Goods Act, which he introduced earlier this year. It basically stops the president from imposing or increasing tariffs on imports into the US. The bill has a way to go.
"I think, really, our country, within a couple of weeks, became a laughingstock in terms of these, you know, tariffs," Wyden said. "I mean, it really has been an unforced error."
Wyden will be hosting a series of townhalls in the near future and hopes Oregonians will come out and share their thoughts on tariffs and everything else that's going on.