'If this tariff takes effect, we are out of business': Small companies warn of widespread layoffs and shutdowns if Trump doesn’t back down from a trade war with China

The Trump administration is expected to enact tariffs on an additional $200 billion worth of Chinese imports to the US.
Some companies say they will have to immediately lay off employees to absorb the cost.
Others warn they may have to shut down completely.

Win Cramer, the chief executive of an American audio products business, felt he was visibly anxious as he addressed a panel of US Trade Representative officials at a public hearing in Washington last month.

"If I come across as a bit nervous, it's because I genuinely feel this is the biggest moment in my company's life," Cramer said, according to testimony transcripts. He desperately wanted the Trump administration to understand how much its proposed import tariffs on roughly $200 billion worth of Chinese goods could hurt his 13-year-old business, JLab Audio.

Because JLab could not afford to absorb the costs of a 25% tax on Chinese imports and has contractual price commitments with customers, Cramer said the company would have no choice but to cut its staff. It would immediately have to lay off 12% of employees, he lamented, with more to follow.

Cramer lives in California, but like hundreds of other business and industry representatives, he felt a trek across the country was worth the chance to testify before the USTR. Knowing they were allowed just five minutes of testimony each, more than 350 submitted requests to voice how further escalations in President Donald Trump's trade war with China could affect them.

The Trump administration has enacted punitive duties on about $50 billion worth of imports from the country, summoning tit-for-tat responses from Beijing. A public comment period for another round of tariffs targeting an additional $200 billion worth of products ends Thursday, after which Trump is expected to take action.

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Trump, however, asserts the tariffs will ultimately help defend the US against what trade officials found to be intellectual property theft and business practices that are perceived as unfair. Bringing back jobs by reducing the trade deficit, which the president views as a general sign of economic weakness, has been one of his signature promises since the campaign trail.

A relatively small number of businesses testified in agreement with the president.

The US steel industry has been a rare champion of rising protectionism, which has sent domestic prices of the metal sharply higher. Trump recently visited Granite City Works, an Illinois steel plant that announced earlier this year tariffs allowed it to increase production.

Winners from the trade war have otherwise been few and far between, especially as it increasingly hits consumer products and