ROANOKE, Va. – President Donald Trump announced Wednesday a 90-day pause on steep tariffs on imports from dozens of countries while increasing tariffs on China, just hours after they took effect.
The back-and-forth over tariffs is leaving business owners and consumers feeling a bit uncertain.
Victoria Taylor, co-owner of The Gift Niche in the Roanoke City Market, told 10 News how much has changed in the four decades since the store first opened.
“I probably have less than 10 products in this store that I know for a fact are made in America,” Taylor said. “When we started 40 years ago, almost everything was made in America. As time has gone by, more and more people have just outsourced to try and hold their prices down.”
Taylor is concerned about how the increased tariffs could affect her business.
While President Trump has paused the more punitive reciprocal tariffs on most countries for now, a 10 percent tariff remains in place across the board. Chinese imports, however, have been hit with a staggering 125 percent tariff after the country retaliated with tariffs of its own on Wednesday.
“I had future orders already pre-booked,” Taylor said. “I felt like that perhaps that was giving me a little level of insurance there, that those prices could remain firm, because we hate to see our customers have to pay more for the very same item just because of the tariff.”
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Other sectors are also feeling the impact of this uncertainty. Two tire stores told 10 News major suppliers are holding off on raising prices—for now.
In a YouTube message, Lisa Borches, CEO of Carter Myers Automotive, which owns dealerships across the Commonwealth, including in Lynchburg and Staunton, sought to reassure customers.
“Our existing new car inventories, all over two thousand vehicles that are on our lots today, are unaffected by the tariffs,” Borches said. However, she cautioned that this could change in the future.
Consumers like Susan Moore are already thinking about the implications of higher tariffs.
“It’s something we talk about almost daily, especially with it on the news so much and how it’s going to affect us in the future,” Moore said. “Right now, we’re really not seeing it so much.”
Some tariffs on items from Canada and Mexico remain at 25 percent, and other tariffs are still planned for autos, steel, aluminum, and various imports.