ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
President Trump is imposing steep tariffs today on products that come from this country's three biggest trading partners - Mexico, Canada and China. And those higher taxes on imports are sending shock waves through the U.S. economy. One sector bracing for impact is the housewares industry - companies that make kitchen gadgets, travel gear and pet supplies, as David Schaper reports from Chicago.
DAVID SCHAPER, BYLINE: It's not quite outdoor grilling season here in Chicago just yet, but Paul Cira has the products you need to get ready for it.
PAUL CIRA: Our flagship product is the Q-Swiper, and it's just an easy way to clean your grill. It's like a Swiffer for your barbecue grill.
SCHAPER: Cira is one of 1,600 exhibitors here at the big annual Inspired Home Show hawking products to upgrade home living.
CIRA: Then we have our grill basket, which is...
SCHAPER: Cira would love nothing more than to chat about his grilling tools all day. But the talk here among members of the International Housewares Association inevitably turns to tariffs.
CIRA: The concern is inflationary, right?
SCHAPER: Cira's company, Proud Grill, is Canadian and manufactures most of its products in China, and they're sold here in hardware stores.
CIRA: They're going to take retail prices up in their stores. They're going to have to.
SCHAPER: Down the row on the exhibition center floor is Jan Murtagh, president of Portland-based CDN, which makes digital thermometers, timers and scales for home kitchens and restaurants in many places, including Hong Kong.
JAN MURTAGH: Well, you know, it's already a problem with timers - that 25% - because you think of a little timer, and you add 25% to that, something that shouldn't be that expensive now is.
SCHAPER: And how might consumers react?
MURTAGH: It gets to the point you don't want to pay. It is just too expensive, and you could live without it.
SCHAPER: The overwhelming concern here in the housewares industry is that already tight margins will be squeezed even more and sales may slow significantly.
BILL MCHENRY: I think it's going to make things trickier. I think we're going to have to figure out a way to maybe cut other costs.
SCHAPER: Bill McHenry is president and founder of Widgeteer, a Chicago area company that sells glassware, woodware and other kinds of kitchenware. I asked if he was able to stock up ahead of the tariffs.
MCHENRY: Some of my peers that have bigger companies - like the booth next to us is over a billion-dollar company - they did buy extra. But I'm not that big, you know? So I don't have the financial capability of buying a bunch of stuff and holding it.
SCHAPER: McHenry says he has some factories in countries not facing the steep tariffs and is considering moving more of his manufacturing out of China.
MCHENRY: But the Chinese, frankly, make amazing glassware. And glassware is a big part of our business. And even with the tariffs, their costs are still better than going to India or another country.
SCHAPER: For Doug Cohen, it's not the Trump tariffs per se.
DOUG COHEN: The problem is the reciprocal tariffs.
SCHAPER: Cohen's company, Regency Wraps, makes and sources cloth kitchen products here in the U.S.
COHEN: This lemon wrap is made in Dallas, and we export it every day to Germany to Canada, to France - all over the world.
SCHAPER: Canada and China have already announced reciprocal tariffs on U.S. products, and others may follow suit.
COHEN: I mean, the other countries are not going to absorb the tariffs. I am. And we have to pass them on, or at least a portion of them.
SCHAPER: Cohen knows his products are not a necessity and if the price is too high, customers won't buy them. And that could put his company and its 35 employees in Dallas in peril.
For NPR News, I'm David Schaper, in Chicago.
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