If there's one word you've heard in the news lately, it's tariffs.
These taxes on imported goods are supposed to encourage people to buy American-made products by making foreign items more expensive in comparison, according to President Donald Trump.
On April 9, Trump’s baseline tariffs of 10% on almost all imports took effect. Some countries were originally hit with even higher rates — such as Vietnam, Thailand and India — until the president paused that for 90 days, bringing most countries back down to 10%, except for China.
RELATED: Trump says he will pause tariff hikes for 90 days, but not for China
The back-and-forth decisions are leading to confusion for some Florida companies that import products.
Drew Newman’s family has been making cigars in Tampa's Ybor City for 130 years. He’s the fourth-generation owner o f J.C. Newman Cigar Co., and he says the “surprise announcement” of tariffs has really “upended the entire industry.”
Even though his company produces cigars locally, they still import cigars and raw materials, like tobacco leaves, from foreign countries like Honduras, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic.
"(Our) cigars are rolled by hand,” he explained. “There's a lot of hand labor that's involved, and labor is so much cheaper in Latin America."
Industry experts told Cigar Aficionado magazine that smokers could end up paying between 50 cents and $2.10 more per handmade cigar in a zero-tobacco-tax state and more in a state like Florida that taxes tobacco.
He added that it takes about three to five years for tobacco leaves to be turned into the end product, so cigar companies have a very long business timeline.
“We planned our promotions, specials, pricing brochures months ago and sent it out to retailers,” he said. “And now the entire industry is faced with the reality that the cost of our products that we're trying to sell is going to be a lot more than what we had expected.”
Newman said he believes that the higher price tag will be passed down from manufacturer to retailer to consumer. And even though his company is the oldest U.S. traditional cigar company, he’s not sure how much the tariffs will really motivate people to buy American.
But in a different industry, people are welcoming the taxes.
“In the short term, the tariffs could be a potential lifeline,” said Justin Versaggi, owner of the century-old Versaggi Shrimp Co.
He’s excited about the potential increase in demand for his locally caught product, since the heavy presence of cheaper, imported shrimp has been detrimental to his business.
“We have a product that’s superior to what else is on the market, and it’s a shame that we can’t … get a fair price,” he said. “We can’t sustain this much longer.”
Versaggi said he’s grateful for the lower fuel prices that have been in effect since Trump took office since that's his biggest expense.
But he’s also wary of the potential extra costs that he could incur because of the tariffs.
Cables, equipment and boat maintenance materials are often imported from China and South Korea, and tariffs mean that Versaggi would have to pay more for those things.
Christine Gala of Big Daddy’s Seafood Market in Fort Myers agrees that the tariffs should make locally caught shrimp more attractive to American consumers.
"We don't have an even playing field right now,” Gala said. “The U.S. government subsidizes these foreign shrimp farms so they don't have the costs that we have. We cannot compete with the imports."
For 45 years, she owned Trico Shrimping Co. But when Hurricane Ian hit in 2022, it wiped out all 14 of her shrimping boats. Now, all of her income comes from two boats operating under the Big Daddy label.
“The imports have kept our prices depressed; we’ve been fighting this for 20 years,” Gala explained.
She said that imported shrimp are cheaper because they’re farm-raised — but they're often contaminated with antibiotics that are banned in the U.S.
“I do know that everybody’s afraid of the tariffs, and it’s going to be hard for a while,” Gala said. “But I think we will be stronger for it.”
