Tariffs Changed Again. Here's What That Actually Means for Small Makers.

The Short Version

If you make things and sell them, the last two years of U.S. tariff policy landed on you harder than most people realize.

Rates changed. Rules changed. Tariffs were challenged in court, struck down, and rebuilt under different trade laws. Sometimes the ground shifted again before a small business had time to figure out what the last change meant.

Large companies have trade lawyers, procurement departments, customs specialists, and enough purchasing power to spread new costs across thousands or millions of units.

You have you.

Maybe you import a 40kg drum of shea butter. Maybe you order one bolt of Japanese linen. Maybe you've never imported anything yourself, but the U.S. supplier you buy your glass jars from has.

Either way, when the cost of getting those materials into the country goes up, that cost has a way of eventually finding your studio. And then it becomes your problem.

This is the plain-English version of what happened — and, more importantly, what it can do to your costs, your pricing, your margins, and the business behind what you make.

A few terms first

Because customs has never met a perfectly normal concept it couldn't give a more annoying name:

• A tariff, or duty, is a tax charged on goods entering a country. The importer pays it when the goods enter. It is not a bill sent to the country exporting them.
• The importer of record is the person or business legally responsible for the shipment at the border, including customs requirements and applicable duties.
• De minimis was the rule that allowed qualifying parcels valued under $800 to enter the U.S. duty-free with simplified customs treatment. That exemption is gone.
• Landed cost is what something actually costs you by the time it reaches your studio: purchase price plus shipping, duty, brokerage, and other import costs.

That last one is the number we care about. Because the number on the supplier invoice isn't necessarily what the material actually costs you.

And if that number is wrong? Everything you calculate after it can be wrong too.

There's a calculator below so you can run your own numbers.

Okay. What Actually Happened?

The tariff rules changed repeatedly and under several different laws.

You do not need to memorize the laws to run your business. But understanding the basic timeline helps explain why a material that cost one thing six months ago might cost something very different today — and why another change could happen again.

April 2025. The Trump administration announced sweeping "reciprocal" tariffs on imports from most U.S. trading partners using a 1977 emergency law called the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Rates began with a 10% floor and went substantially higher for some countries.

August 2025. The $800 de minimis exemption ended. This one matters enormously for small makers. Low-value overseas parcels that had previously qualified for duty-free treatment could now face duties and additional customs costs.

February 20, 2026. The Supreme Court ruled 6–3 in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that IEEPA did not give the president the authority to impose those tariffs. The tariffs imposed under that law were terminated.

Days later. The Trump administration moved to rebuild much of the tariff coverage using other trade laws. That included a temporary 10% import surcharge under Section 122 of the Trade Act, an authority intended for balance-of-payments emergencies and available for a limited period without congressional action.

July 24, 2026. That Section 122 measure expired. That same day, new Section 301 tariffs took effect on goods from dozens of trading partners, with rates of 10% or 12.5% across a long list of imports. Additional duties continued to apply to some goods and countries.

And some tariffs never went anywhere. Existing Section 232 duties on certain metals and older Section 301 duties on Chinese goods remained. Depending on what you're importing and where it originated, different duties can also stack.

So the legal authority changed. The paperwork changed. The headlines changed. That does not mean the extra cost disappeared from your supply chain.

"But I Make Soap and Earrings. Does This Even Apply to Me?"

Yep.

And this is where trade policy stops sounding like a Washington problem and starts becoming a Tuesday-afternoon-in-your-studio problem.

Your soap has ingredients. Your jewelry has findings. Your stationery has paper. Your candles have vessels. Your ceramics have glaze. Your textiles have fiber. Your leather goods have hardware.

And somewhere upstream, there's a very good chance that at least something crossed a border.

Tariffs aren't reserved for steel beams, automobiles, and shipping containers full of industrial equipment. Imported goods move through the customs system whether they're destined for a multinational corporation or a one-person studio making extremely specific earrings.

The applicable rate depends on things like what the goods are, where they originated, and how customs classifies them. It does not depend on how adorable your studio is.

Here's how the cost gets to you.

You buy something you can't make yourself:

• Indigo
• Beeswax
• Mica
• Linen
• Ceramic glaze
• Japanese tools
• Italian leather
• Czech glass beads

Maybe you buy directly from overseas. Maybe you buy from a U.S. supplier. Somebody imports it.

If you import it yourself, you may be the one dealing directly with the import costs. If your supplier imports it, they deal with those costs first.

But that doesn't make the cost disappear. It travels down the supply chain.

Your supplier doesn't have to put a giant line on your invoice that says: HELLO, THIS PRICE INCREASE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY TARIFF POLICY.

They can raise the price. Add a surcharge. Change the pack size. Adjust shipping. Renegotiate their own sourcing.

Whatever form it takes, their cost changed. Eventually, yours may too.

And being tiny doesn't protect you. In some ways, it can make the economics worse.

Duties may be percentage-based, but customs brokerage, entry, shipping, and processing can include charges that don't shrink proportionally with your order. A large importer can spread those costs over thousands of units. You might be spreading them over twenty.

That's the part people miss.

You can feel the effects of tariffs without ever personally filling out a customs form. The cost may already be sitting quietly inside the materials on your shelf.

Remember this: Tariffs don't care how small your business is. If imported goods exist somewhere in your supply chain, changes in import costs can eventually become changes in your costs.

The Death of De Minimis — or, Why That Tiny Parcel Suddenly Got Expensive

For years, qualifying shipments valued under $800 could enter the United States duty-free under the de minimis rule.

By 2024, an enormous volume of low-value packages was entering under that system. Yes, that included the flood of parcels from platforms like Shein and Temu.

But it also included the kinds of weirdly specific little orders that keep creative businesses running:

• one bolt of Japanese linen
• a box of Czech glass beads
• a specialty tool
• a small batch of hardware
• a sample from a supplier you're thinking about trying

That flexibility mattered to small makers.

Then the exemption ended in August 2025. And the economics of small international orders changed.

Fixed costs hurt a lot more when you're tiny.

Imagine a $25 brokerage or processing charge. On a $4,000 shipment? Annoying. On a $60 sample? Are you fucking kidding me? Same fee. Wildly different impact.

A big importer spreads that cost across a mountain of inventory. You spread it across whatever fits on the table next to your Cricut.

"I'll just order a sample" isn't as cheap anymore.

Small-scale experimentation is part of making. You find a supplier. You order a sample. You test it. Maybe it's great. Maybe it's terrible and joins the Drawer of Things We Will Never Speak of Again.

Either way, the experiment used to be relatively cheap. When small international shipments carry additional customs costs, experimentation itself gets more expensive. For creative businesses, that matters.

Big companies have options you don't:

• consolidate imports
• negotiate freight
• operate bonded warehouses
• optimize customs processes
• distribute administrative costs across enormous purchasing volumes

A two-person stationery studio cannot restructure its international logistics network because a tariff changed on Tuesday.

That's why the same policy can land very differently on a tiny business.

Cool. So What Does This Actually Do to My Business?

This is the part Inari cares about.

Because trade policy is important. But if you're trying to keep a tiny creative business alive, the immediate question is: What did this do to my numbers?

Three things matter most.

1. Your materials cost more.

Even if you buy from a U.S. supplier, that supplier may be importing the goods they sell you. Their landed cost increases. Eventually, some or all of that increase can reach you.

It might appear as a higher unit price. A surcharge. A smaller pack. Different shipping. Whatever form it takes, your input cost changed.

2. Small orders can get disproportionately ugly.

Duty is only one part of landed cost. There can also be freight, brokerage, processing, currency conversion, and other costs associated with getting an imported material into your hands.

When you're buying small quantities, there are fewer units to absorb those costs.

3. Your old pricing can quietly stop working.

This is the dangerous one. You calculated your costs. You set the price. Your margin worked.

Then six months later, a material that landed in your studio for $6.50 now costs $8.61. Your selling price didn't change. Your margin did.

And unless you're watching the economics underneath the product, you may not realize it. That's how a product that feels profitable slowly stops being one.

This Is Why Landed Cost Matters So Much

Let's say a material costs $6.50.

So you put this into your costing: MATERIAL COST: $6.50

Seems reasonable.

Except getting that material onto your shelf also required: duty, international freight, brokerage, processing, currency conversion.

Maybe your actual cost isn't $6.50 anymore. Maybe it's $8.61.

That difference looks small until the material is used across hundreds of products.

And then:

• wrong material cost
• wrong product cost
• wrong margin
• wrong wholesale economics
• wrong pricing decision

This is exactly the kind of thing that gets dangerous inside a tiny business because there's usually nobody assigned to watch it.

• There isn't a procurement analyst down the hall noticing that a material cost changed.
• There isn't a CFO rerunning the product economics.
• There isn't an operations manager flagging the affected SKUs.
• There's you.
• And you were busy making the actual thing.

Not: "Here's another report. Good luck."

But:

That's the future we're building toward. Your numbers have something to tell you. Inari is being built to help you hear them.

"Can't I Just Buy American?"

Sometimes.

If there's a genuinely comparable domestic material at a price and quality that works for your business, absolutely compare it.

But "just buy American" is not a serious supply-chain strategy for every craft.

• Cotton muslin
• Silk
• Indigo
• Mica
• Cochineal
• Sandalwood
• Washi
• Japanese hardware
• Italian leather
• German kiln components

And a thousand other highly specific materials and tools creative businesses use every day.

Some aren't produced domestically at meaningful scale. Others aren't made domestically at all. And sometimes the thing being imported isn't interchangeable with the thing sitting on the shelf at the nearest craft store.

Washi isn't just paper. A specific clay body isn't just dirt. Traditional pigments, fibers, tools, processes, and materials can be part of the craft itself.

For traditional crafts, sometimes the material is the tradition. Replacing it isn't merely changing suppliers. It changes the work.

There can also be secondary domestic price effects when imported competitors become more expensive, giving domestic producers additional room to raise prices.

So yes, compare domestic sourcing when it genuinely works. But don't let anyone reduce a complicated supply chain to: "Well, just buy American." Your business deserves better analysis than a bumper sticker.

What About Tariff Refunds?

After the Supreme Court's February ruling, importers who paid affected IEEPA duties may be eligible for refunds.

But this gets technical quickly. Eligibility and process can depend on details including:

• who was importer of record
• how the shipment was entered
• whether the entry has been finalized
• whether required protests or other procedures were filed on time

If you were the importer of record, pull your customs records and talk to a licensed customs broker or other qualified professional about your specific shipments.

If your supplier was the importer, the refund claim generally belongs to them rather than automatically becoming yours. It may still be worth asking your supplier about it.

But: Don't build your cash flow around money you might get back. Run the business using the costs you're actually paying today.

Okay, What Should I Actually Do About This?

You do not need to become a trade lawyer. You need to understand which parts of your business changed.

Find your real landed cost.

Take the purchase price. Add applicable: duty, freight, brokerage, processing, currency conversion costs.

Then divide by the number of usable units you actually received. That number — not necessarily the line on the supplier invoice — is what the material cost you.

Recheck the products most exposed to imported materials.

Do not panic-reprice your entire catalog because you read a tariff headline. Start with the products most dependent on materials whose costs actually changed. Find the problem before you solve the problem.

Check retail and wholesale separately.

This one matters. A product can still look perfectly healthy at retail while wholesale quietly becomes awful. If your costs changed, run both. Don't assume: "I'm still making money at retail, so we're fine." You may not be fine.

Consolidate orders when the math supports it.

Larger, less frequent orders can sometimes spread shipping, brokerage, and other fixed costs across more units. But don't order six years of supplies to save $17 in fees. Cash sitting on a shelf is still cash sitting on a shelf. The cheapest unit price is not automatically the smartest purchasing decision.

Ask for country of origin and classification information.

When you're sourcing internationally, get country-of-origin information and, where available, the appropriate HTS classification. The HTS code is the customs classification used to determine how a product is treated. You cannot reliably forecast a duty when you don't know how the goods are classified.

Don't automatically cheapen the work.

Your material cost goes up. So you switch to thinner paper. Cheaper findings. Worse packaging. Faster finishing. A lower-quality substitute. And suddenly you've "solved" a temporary cost problem by permanently making your product worse.

No.

• Maybe the answer is another supplier.
• Maybe it's consolidating an order.
• Maybe it's changing the price.
• Maybe it's changing the product.
• Maybe it's discontinuing something.
• Maybe it's accepting a different margin because the product serves another purpose in your business.

There isn't one universally correct answer. There is a correct first step: Know what actually changed before you decide what to do about it.

The Political Part, Said Plainly

We're not going to do the thing where a business talks about the consequences of political decisions while pretending nobody made those decisions.

Donald Trump and his administration did. These tariff policies were political choices. They were implemented rapidly, repeatedly changed, challenged through the courts, and reconstructed using different legal authorities. Businesses then had to operate inside the uncertainty those choices created.

Large corporations have ways to protect themselves:

• lawyers
• lobbyists
• procurement departments
• trade specialists
• warehouses
• purchasing power
• alternative suppliers
• cash reserves

Tiny businesses have considerably less room to absorb instability.

And Inari Everyday is not politically neutral about the larger movement behind these policies.

We are anti-Trump. We are anti-fascist. We are anti-authoritarian.

That is not a disclaimer buried in twelve-point type. It's part of who we are.

We believe people should be free to make things, build businesses, create weird little lives for themselves, cross borders, exchange ideas and goods, and participate in their communities without having to accommodate authoritarianism as though it's simply another normal business condition.

We also reject the idea that a business has to pretend politics stops at the studio door. It doesn't.

• Politics determines labor rules.
• Politics determines trade rules.
• Politics determines tariffs.
• Politics determines immigration policy.
• Politics affects healthcare, infrastructure, education, civil rights, currency, taxation, regulation, and the conditions under which people are able to build businesses in the first place.

Eventually, those enormous political decisions become extremely ordinary numbers:

• $0.84 more for a material.
• Four points gone from a margin.
• $200 more to bring in an order.
• A wholesale price that doesn't work anymore.

That's how policy reaches a workbench. And when it does, the smallest businesses often have the least protection from it.

Small By Choice Shouldn't Mean Powerless by Default.

This is one of the reasons we're building Inari.

A small business shouldn't have to become a giant company before it gets access to sophisticated operational thinking.

You shouldn't need:

• a pricing analyst
• a purchasing department
• an operations manager
• a financial analyst
• a production planner

just to understand what's happening behind the things you make.

Inari is being built to help provide some of that operational intelligence to businesses that have Sarah. And Sarah is currently packing orders.

So when something outside your control changes — a tariff, a supplier price, a shipping rate, a currency, a material shortage — the goal isn't to dump another spreadsheet on you.

The goal is eventually for Inari to say:

Because you can't control every political or economic decision made around your business. But you should be able to see what it's doing to your business and make a decision before it becomes a crisis.

Know your numbers. Know where your materials come from. Know when your costs change. Know who made the policies affecting them. Know what those policies are doing to people with less power than the corporations built to absorb them.

And vote accordingly.

KEEP THE HANDMADE. AUTOMATE THE HEADACHE.

Small By Choice, Global by Design.

Tariff rules and rates can change quickly. The figures and policy timeline in this article reflect the information used for this article through September 2026 and are intended for education and business planning, not customs, legal, tax, or financial advice. Your actual tariff treatment depends on factors including product classification, country of origin, entry method, and other applicable duties. Confirm a specific import with a licensed customs broker or other qualified professional before making a material purchasing or pricing decision.