Axios Des Moines: “Iowa Small Businesses Feel Tariff Squeeze”
DES MOINES – New reporting from Axios Des Moines details how small businesses across Iowa are “feeling the pain of tariffs” and “astronomically” higher prices that Randy Feenstra, Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks, and Zach Nunn all support.
Feenstra, Hinson, Miller-Meeks, and Nunn repeatedly voted to protect the reckless and unconstitutional tariffs that have cost Iowa families an estimated $1,000 in 2025, raised prices on small businesses, and pushed Iowa farmers to the brink of another farm crisis.
Read more from Axios on the cost-hiking tariffs that Iowa’s Congressional delegation supports:
- Iowa business owners say they started feeling the pain of tariffs last year, and this year’s Supreme Court ruling hasn’t brought any clarity for the future.
- Why it matters: Small business owners say their profit margins are too small to absorb tariff-related price shocks, making planning for the future difficult.
- Trump also instituted a 10% global tariff after the ruling.
- State of play: In West Des Moines’ Valley Junction, shop owners have shared growing concerns, especially since many of their products come from overseas, says Steve Frevert, executive director of the Historic Valley Junction Foundation.
- “Their vendors would hike the price astronomically to cover their tariff costs,” Frevert says. “So that gets passed on to the businesses.”
- [Velorosa] Co-owners Kim Hopkins and Lisa Carponelli chose to “press pause” for 2026, ordering no new inventory, largely because of tariff unpredictability, Hopkins says.
- Ben Jung, owner of Ingersoll Wine and Spirits, told the Des Moines Register that tariff costs started hitting his business in late 2025 on imports from countries like France, Germany and Italy.
- Even with the court ruling, ongoing uncertainty from Trump’s latest 10% tariff means distributors continue raising prices, Jung says.
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