Market Update: Tariffs Confound Small Businesses Again – Full Analysis

President Trump’s whipsawing trade policy last year destabilized many American businesses. His new push to replace the system with a different batch of duties has bewildered companies all over again.

Since the Supreme Court invalidated many of Mr. Trump’s tariffs last month, his administration has vowed to use other legal authorities to rebuild the program. Almost immediately, Mr. Trump wielded an unproven legal provision to enact a 10 percent across-the-board tariff on U.S. trading partners and threatened to raise the rate.

The haphazard rollout has introduced a tangle of unknowns for companies. A new tariff system could upend months of business decisions, and many companies are bracing for prolonged uncertainty.

They are also considering whether and how to seek refunds on tariffs they paid — and, if they receive them, whether they would return any money to customers.

Peter Furth, whose company, FFF Associates in Stamford, Conn., imports fig paste from Turkey and Spain, said Mr. Trump’s tariffs had driven up costs and destroyed his cash flow. Mr. Furth has been passing on the additional costs to his customers, which include Mondelez, the maker of Fig Newtons; Nature’s Bakery; and J&J Snack Foods. He said he believed he had a contractual, and moral, obligation to return any tariff refund to customers.

“I owe it back to them,” he said. “It’s very simple.”

Smaller businesses like his have been particularly unmoored by the latest shifts in trade policy because, as during last year’s tariff chaos, they lack the legal and financial resources to weather unpredictability smoothly.