Fear and anxiety over the potential impacts of the sweeping tariffs on imported goods announced by Donald Trump last week rippled through Wall Street and onto Main Street, leaving small business owners in the Bronx wondering if they’ll have to raise their prices.
Bronx clothing retailers, who depend on textiles manufactured in countries hit with particularly high tariffs set to kick in April 9, are bracing for the fallout, knowing that they might have to pivot or get creative to keep their businesses afloat. Some are exploring new strategies to remain profitable, but with few clear answers, most say they’re taking it one day at a time.
Amaurys Grullon sells Bronx-themed streetwear for his brand, Bronx Native in the South Bronx. In 2016 he could afford to sell a shirt for around $20. Now, Grullon said the standard price point for the same shirt is around $30. He told the Bronx Times that the new tariffs threaten to increase costs that have already been on the rise.
“ Things are not looking like they’re getting better,” Grullon said. “It’s getting worse economically, and we’re feeling it.”
Things started looking dire for the apparel industry when President Trump announced that some of the steepest tariffs would go to countries that export the most fashion merchandise. Vietnam, which exports the most apparel to the United States after China, will face a 46% tariff while Bangladesh will see its exports taxed at 37%.
Now, Bronx retailers may be caught in the middle of an escalating trade dispute between Donald Trump and the largest supplier of apparel in the world, China. In a Truth Social post, Trump threatened Monday to impose an additional 50% tariff on the textile manufacturing giant if it refused to back off a 34% retaliatory tariff on U.S. goods.
On top of the 20% tariff on Chinese goods that Donald Trump announced when he first took office, and the additional 34% announced last week, an extra 50% tariff on retail items coming to the borough from China would bring the total to a whopping 104%.
But Bejing is not backing down either. China’s commerce ministry released a statement Tuesday calling the latest threat “blackmail” and saying China would “fight to the end.”
The escalating game of chicken between the world’s two largest economies could force some Bronx clothing brands to make some difficult choices about their prices.
Paul and Anthony Ramirez, who founded the Bronx clothing brand From the Bronx, which uses some fabrics manufactured overseas, said they had concerns about keeping their products affordable for people in the Bronx.
“ We’re already in an expensive city as it is,” said Paul Ramirez. “So if [prices] just keep going up, what happens, who do we alienate? Who no longer can actually participate in buying the things that they want?”
The entrepreneurs told the Bronx Times that they question whether the information they have one day will be reliable the next.
“The conversations just keep flip flopping and changing every day and every other day,” said Anthony Ramirez. “There’s a great uncertainty and it’s not only for small businesses. It’s for big businesses, for the stock markets, for everything that’s happening right now.”
They weren’t the only ones skeptical about the reliability of information coming out about the tariffs. On Monday a false rumor about a potential 90 day pause on tariffs briefly boosted the stock market before the President told reporters that he had not been considering any such pause, sending Wall Street back into a tail spin.
The brothers said they still don’t know how much their costs will increase because it’s difficult to know every detail of their vendors’ supply chains from sourcing raw materials to manufacturing the finished product.
“ It’s really, it’s like a wait and see game I think for us right now,” said Anthony Ramirez.
Some Bronx retailers said they were prepared to change up their production based on how trade negotiations eventually settle out. Christían Vasquez, owner of Bronx streetwear brand Famous Nobodys in Mott Haven, is one fashion entrepreneur in the borough working directly with some overseas manufacturers.
“ We’re talking to the factories,” Vasquez said. “We’re looking at different factories in different countries. So we’re just trying to prepare for that aspect, but we’re just taking it a day at a time right now.”
But even with sky-high tariffs threatening to raise their costs, Bronx retailers weren’t sure that the new taxes on imports would ever surpass the cost of manufacturing domestically.
“ We’re actively looking at everything,” Vasquez told the Bronx Times. “But just traditionally, domestic production is always a lot higher than overseas. So we’re looking and we’re trying to see what all options are.”
For now, local brands say there’s only so much they can do to truly prepare – it’s about being quick and creative to respond.
“Our outlook is we’re just gonna have to roll with the punches because we’re not going to shut down,” Vasquez said. “We can’t let it stop our show, so we just gotta pivot, adjust.”
Bronx Native founder Grullon told the Bronx Times that being a small business owner during the pandemic has helped prepare him for the uncertainty.
“ We’re gonna do whatever it takes to make sure that our community is being served, we are providing awesome quality pieces of work for a good amount of money and making sure we’re not breaking people’s pockets, especially now when things are even worse than before,” Grullon said.
