Wilmington business says tariffs already raising import costs

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A downtown Wilmington business says new tariffs on imported goods are already impacting their business.

Swahili Coast, located in the Hallway Shops on North Front Street, works directly with a worker-owned cooperative in Tanzania. The store sells handcrafted goods made in East Africa and shipped to the U.S.

“The ten percent tariff that’s just across the board for everyone right now is affecting us pretty majorly,” said Caroline Fisher, co-founder of Swahili Coast.

Fisher said the business is already seeing those costs reflected in upcoming orders.

“We have a really large shipment on its way from Tanzania right now and it’s an additional ten percent. It’s thousands of dollars that we weren’t budgeting for and we just have to pay it,” Fisher said.

She added that the expiration of the African Growth and Opportunity Act is also affecting what the business pays. The U.S. trade program had previously provided duty-free access to the U.S. market for eligible Sub-Saharan African countries.

“Instead of just ten percent, we actually are looking at 18 percent on most of our products,” Fisher said.

Fisher also voiced concern about how tariff-related costs could affect the sustainability of small businesses.

“What ends up happening is places like Amazon consolidating even more of the market share. So if we want our communities to stay healthy, we have to continue to support small businesses…” she said.

A spokesperson with North Carolina Ports said timing plays a role in how the effects of tariffs are seen along the East Coast.

“Sea transits from China to the East Coast are longer than sea transits from China to the West Coast, so West Coast ports will start to see the impacts of tariffs before ports on the East Coast. It’s roughly a 10-day transit vs. a 45-day transit,” the spokesperson said.

The Ports spokesperson also said it’s too early to tell what effect the tariffs could have on North Carolina’s local economy, but that they are monitoring the situation and remaining focused on diversifying between container shipping and general cargo.