The tariff strategy is the setback and small businesses are the collateral damage

The white house only wrapped up a victory lap For the National Week of Small Business, it is completed by the rates of “Opportunity to unleash” and “Pro-Crease”. But here’s the thing: If you really have run a business in the last five years, not only writing a speech about one, you know this is not how it works.

We will jump the turn. Rates do not protect small businesses. Punishes them. Quiet, constant and with a compound effect.

Rates are not a smart tool for leveling the pitch. They are a quiet tax that makes everything more difficult, especially for small companies that are already sailing through a field of increasing expense, broken supply chains and work pressure. While political leaders paint an image of Main Street Revival, the view from the store is very different. Prices have increased. The supply chains are unpredictable. The margins are reduced. And now, the federal government wants a round of applause to give another tax on the less equipped people to absorb it.

A National Economic Research Office (NBER) study It was found that the added cost of the rates is transmitted entirely to the North -Americans. This means that the load does not fall into foreign competitors, it is based on North -American companies, especially the smallest with thinner margins and less levers. Most small businesses do not have backup suppliers, global negotiation power or the financial track to absorb these shocks.

The rates are not strategic. Are structural sabotage

The logic of rates is always the same: to punish unfair foreign trade practices, protect the national industry and stimulate local growth. The administration’s argument is that the rates will “take work at home” and reduce the external dependence. In theory, maybe. In practice, what they really do is sow chaos in supply chains, delay production and force business owners to make impossible decisions. Increase prices and risk of losing customers? Or eat the costs and hope to survive another quarter?

It is not an opportunity. This is a trap.

And ironically, it helps the corporations themselves that these policies claim to check. Amazon may increase the cost of swallowing. Walmart It can re -transmit the transport of goods. But, the family-owned coffee toaster that needs imported equipment to stay competitive? They are left holding the bag.

The rates are not about establishing equity. They create barriers, especially for small businesses trying to get out of the ground.

For initial phase companies, rates affect more than the bottom line

In any situation where VCs feel that there is a systemic risk for the economy, it is more difficult to get their notebooks to open. Startups need many rounds of capital, and if there is a perception that future rounds will be difficult to achieve, they will need more conviction to invest.

But with the rates, you must also consider the unknown about the profitability of the model. How can any consumer product require raw materials when the long -term costs for any of these companies are consumed comfortably? Or evaluate the demand potential if part of the business advantage is international?

This is like us actually Help small businesses

If policymakers want to strengthen small businesses, they should focus on what the owners really ask:

• Lower entrance costs. This means less hidden taxes, no more.
• Reliable supply chains. We need an investment in infrastructure, not by disruption disguised as patriotism.
• Affordable access to affordable credit. The rates are high and the capital is tight. Entrepreneurs cannot grow.
• Stability of politics. You cannot plan a product launch or sign a lease when the rules continue to change each week.

And perhaps above all: including owners of small businesses in politics. Don’t get rid of them during the thematic weeks.

I am all to protect the North -American company. But do not make it more expensive to do a business in America. Do not do so forcing employers to pay more for less. And, of course, do not pretend that inflation of costs is a victory.

The rates can write down political points. But they are a failure of politics wrapped in patriotic containers. They weaken the same people who claim champions.

Small business week can end, but our attention should not divert the importance of these growing companies. If we want to support the spine of the economy, we must stop weighing it.

Opinions expressed on Fortune.com Comments pieces are only the opinions of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Read -Ne More:

• U.S. CEO CEO: Small businesses want to prosper, not just survive. This is where the Rates uncertainty hurts
• My solution to Trump’s rates: I’m Starting a United States factory to save my small business
• The search for “lean” operations has left companies Exposed merciless to rates chaos

This story originally presented to Fortune.com

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