Taurus Craco Machinery is out some $35,000 as a result of President Donald Trump’s constantly-shifting, on-again, off-again tariffs.
Company owner and CEO Wes Love told Woodworking that after Trump announced sweeping global tariffs on imports from several countries they do business with, he rushed his employees to make sure their imported products got to their American customers before the tariffs were set to take effect on April 9.
Taurus Craco Machinery imports equipment from overseas and distributes it across North America, and much of their business going to the U.S., so trying to beat the tariffs was important.
Love says his entire staff worked overtime to get the job done, but unfortunately, the shipment crossed the border a few minutes too late, just missing the midnight deadline, which resulted in a $34,571 bill from his brokerage company.
Usually and in the future, Love says these costs will be passed on to the customer, but because they deal had been negotiated without the additional Trump tariffs, the company decided to ‘eat’ the additional cost.
Of course on the same day the tariffs took effect, just hours later, Trump once again changed his mind and paused them for 90 days.
Love called the situation “heartbreaking and incredibly frustrating,” and he is certainly not alone in that regard.
“I’ve heard from businesses from across the country and many of them are in a similar situation.,” he says. “This is a challenging and frustrating business environment.”
