After my grandfather proudly served our country in WWII he founded Atalanta, a food importing company specializing in trade with Eastern Europe. This year, our family company celebrates its 75th anniversary. For many years, our business was with former communist countries such as Poland, Hungary and Romania. It is hard to imagine that we face more uncertainty in our business today dealing with our own country, than dealing with countries that were behind the Iron Curtain.
While it is true, the imported cheese industry was spared additional tariffs on Feb. 14 when the U.S Trade Representative (USTR) made its most recent announcement, the Trump administration’s threat to impose up to 100% trade tariffs on select European Union products including cheese and wine still stands. There is still great uncertainty as the administration’s carousel tariff strategy can rotate different products on and off the tariff list every few months. Imagine the trepidation our industry feels waiting to see whether the products from which we make our livelihood will face even more severe tariffs than the 25% tariffs we got hit with in October. Who knows what to expect in August when the next list is to be released?
These tariffs, which stem from two separate disputes between the United States and the European Union related to military aerospace and digital services, do not hurt our trading partners as much as they hurt American companies. They simply pass their additional costs onto us. In less than four months since the first round of tariffs was imposed, my company has already paid in excess of $6 million as a result of these tariffs. Continue reading.