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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.

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Speaker 2: With Us Now is Rebecca mincov. She is the founder

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Speaker 2: and chief creative officer of Rebecca Mincouf. Rebecca also part

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Speaker 2: of a group of small business owners who wrote an

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Speaker 2: open letter to President Trump and lawmakers urging tariff exemptions

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Speaker 2: on small businesses. Rebecca, it's great to have you with

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Speaker 2: us now. Tell us about the response. Have you heard

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Speaker 2: back from any of the lawmakers.

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Speaker 1: We unfortunately have not heard back yet, but we do

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Speaker 1: know that Trump is listening, as we know with the news,

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Speaker 1: you know, the most recent news, it seems like there

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Speaker 1: is a willingness to listen, whether it's the noise.

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Speaker 3: We've made or that in general, you know.

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Speaker 1: Small businesses are making across America and we're crossing our

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Speaker 1: fingers and hoping to get a meeting soon.

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Speaker 4: How much would it cost to bring production here, Rebecca,

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Speaker 4: I mean, what kind of upcharge would you be looking at?

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Speaker 4: Is it anything compared to tariff's on China?

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Speaker 1: I think we have to first start with the infrastructure.

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Speaker 1: There is no hand infrastructure in America anymore besides a

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Speaker 1: couple of small factories in New York City. So not

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Speaker 1: only would we have to build a factory that could

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Speaker 1: make the amount of units for trying to make, but

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Speaker 1: we'd have to bring back hardware manufacturing, bring back tanning

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Speaker 1: and leather. I mean, these are all things that are

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Speaker 1: purchased overseas and assembled, whether it's China or where we

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Speaker 1: make in Cambodia and Vietnam. And so you're asking for,

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Speaker 1: you know, if you want this to really work, give

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Speaker 1: us grants to build factories, give us several years of

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Speaker 1: tear breaks in order to make these things happen, and

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Speaker 1: then we'd love to make in America. It just right now,

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Speaker 1: if I were to switch everything to America, my price

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Speaker 1: would double and my consumer is not here for that.

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Speaker 5: You have spoken to so many other businesses in this letter.

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Speaker 5: You've given some real world impacts, and you've said that

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Speaker 5: you guys are becoming unintended collateral damage in this escalating

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Speaker 5: trade war. What do you think are the things people

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Speaker 5: really need to understand about how small businesses are faring

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Speaker 5: right now? The damage that's been caused today.

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Speaker 1: So the damage that's being caused to day, and some

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Speaker 1: incredible female founded brands like Juliette why Juliette Wines, right

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Speaker 1: Land Olive Oil State bags is as a small business,

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Speaker 1: we can't afford to absorb these costs like a bigger

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Speaker 1: company can with far larger negotiating power, and we can't

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Speaker 1: pass it on to our customers. So on the handbag side,

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Speaker 1: we're actually choosing to take the margin hit not pass

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Speaker 1: it on to our customer, because we know with the

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Speaker 1: rising cost of everything else, you know, a thirty dollars

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Speaker 1: impact to her is truly meaningful. And so we are

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Speaker 1: looking at over a billion dollars of damage that will

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Speaker 1: be affected if this goes through with just forty of

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Speaker 1: the businesses that sign the petition. So we're urging Trump

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Speaker 1: and lawmakers to truly listen to us and give us exemptions.

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Speaker 3: Well, let's talk about what.

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Speaker 2: That means for you and your business, that decision to

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Speaker 2: take the margin had and to eat that cost. I mean,

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Speaker 2: what does that mean for your planning? Do you have

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Speaker 2: to pull back on hiring, do you have to reduce headcount,

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Speaker 2: pull back on maybe some planned exps? What does that

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Speaker 2: actually look like for you?

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Speaker 1: So ironically, the day that the tariffs were announced was

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Speaker 1: the same week that we were in market selling for

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Speaker 1: Q four of this year, so our buyers came in

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Speaker 1: all with very pulls back orders and conservative purchase orders,

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Speaker 1: which affects our Q four outlook.

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Speaker 3: And so once we know that business is going to.

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Speaker 1: Be less than we thought it was, even if he

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Speaker 1: changed his mind, they're not coming back and saying we're

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Speaker 1: going to increase our orders because no one knows with

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Speaker 1: all this uncertainty.

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Speaker 3: So I can't tell you.

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Speaker 1: What the outlog looks like yet, but it is going

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Speaker 1: to impact everything you just mentioned, unfortunately, and it's terrible

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Speaker 1: because it impacts people's jobs, their livelihoods, and our ability

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Speaker 1: to expand.

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Speaker 4: So we just heard from Scott Bessant and his comments

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Speaker 4: on I think tax breaks were a little bit overshadowed

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Speaker 4: by Caroline Levitt saying it was a hostile move by

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Speaker 4: Amazon to show consumers the cost impact of tariffs. Amazon

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Speaker 4: has now said, hey, we never planned on doing that anyways,

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Speaker 4: So it looks like they've been successfully scared off of that.

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Speaker 4: But I wonder to get back to his tax point

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Speaker 4: and to underline what you were saying earlier. If they

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Speaker 4: allow you to write off a factory, if they allow

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Speaker 4: you to write off all of the equipment, you still

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Speaker 4: need a reprieve on tariffs while you're building those things, right, Rebecca.

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Speaker 4: So I mean the tax carrot is great, but you've

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Speaker 4: still got the tariff stick beating you from behind.

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Speaker 1: Correct. And also we have to train and hire people

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Speaker 1: who know the craft of making handbags. That's not something

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Speaker 1: you just easily teach someone who graduates from college.

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Speaker 3: And so I think there's so many factors we need time.

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Speaker 1: You know, if this is going to happen, we need

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Speaker 1: probably three to five years to build up the infrastructure

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Speaker 1: to support this business again and then keep that going

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Speaker 1: when the new administration comes in in four years and

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Speaker 1: changes course. So it's really all about how do we

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Speaker 1: do this in sustainable way that doesn't change the minute

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Speaker 1: there's a new president.

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Speaker 5: You know, you've brought up some potential here, including targeted grants,

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Speaker 5: But I want to focus on the number one issue

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Speaker 5: you brought up here, this idea of small business tariff exemptions.

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Speaker 5: How likely do you think that scenario would be for

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Speaker 5: there to be a threshold or by employees or revenue

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Speaker 5: that could get you through the door in a way

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Speaker 5: that could help you out when the larger businesses might

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Speaker 5: be disproportionately impacted in an easier way because they have

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Speaker 5: the scale to deal with this.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think that it's a creative idea. It

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Speaker 1: gives us time, It helps ease a lot of these

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Speaker 1: small businesses where the pressure and our minimums are so

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Speaker 1: much lower, so we have a lot less leverage. We've

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Speaker 1: seen it done with the you know, microchips and Apple phones.

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Speaker 1: So if they're getting an exemption or they're not going

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Speaker 1: to be charged, I think we feel as small businesses

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Speaker 1: doing under fifty million.

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Speaker 3: Dollars, you know, keep us alive.

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Speaker 1: We are employing millions of people collectively and affecting livelihoods

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Speaker 1: across the US. And so if you really want to

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Speaker 1: make America great again, you should make sure that we

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Speaker 1: don't go away, because a lot of the brands I

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Speaker 1: mentioned will go away.

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Speaker 2: All right, Rebecca a somber note to leave that on.

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Speaker 2: Would love to stay in touch. Our thanks to Rebecca

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Speaker 2: Man Coffee