MILWAUKEE — U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., held a roundtable discussion on tariffs, with a group of business owners from Southeast Wisconsin on Monday.
“I think chaos is its own kind of tariff,” Baldwin said. “We need certainty to plan. We need certainty to move forward.”
The discussion was held at Lakefront Brewery, which is one of Canada’s top producers of gluten-free beer. The owner of Lakefront said if selling the product in Canada gets too costly, it will affect production and profits in Milwaukee.
Natasha Broxton, owner of Select Auto Parts & Sales in Milwaukee, was also in attendance. Her team takes apart cars. Then, they sell the parts in-person and online.
She said the tariffs on imports are making it more expensive to purchase salvaged cars at auctions, particularly those with foreign parts. The rising costs, she said, are affecting her entire operation.
“This light might have been $50, but now it might be $75,” she said, referencing an auto light.
She said tariffs have also increased the cost of the tools needed to remove the parts from cars, and the packaging materials used to ship them.
“Those tools, we use them every day,” Broxton said. “Tariffs are going to affect that, which in turn, affects my customers. A lot of my customers rely on us for affordable, reliable auto parts. Some of our customers are living paycheck to paycheck, so with us being a community business, this is going to affect them directly.”
Broxton noted that her business has seen a 10% drop in sales in just the past month.
“With the uncertainty, it causes people to not spend,” she said. “So, they have to make the choice, ‘OK, maybe we don’t repair the car this week because we don’t know what’s going to happen with these prices.’”
Broxton added while trade policy discussions often center on major manufacturers, small businesses such as hers are often the first to absorb the impact.
“We think about the big manufacturers when we think about the tariffs, but there’s a ripple effect that happens within small businesses,” Broxton said.
