Tariffs’ impact? Erie businesses left confused regardless of politics

The U.S. Supreme Court delivered what’s been called a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump when it ruled 6-3 that the emergency basis for his tariffs was illegal.

That Feb. 20 decision, like the tariffs themselves, has implications for Erie.

Whether or not they supported the policy, scores of local companies who bought or sold goods that crossed international lines have been affected by the policy.

It’s been felt by Erie-based Logistics Plus, which has scrambled over the past year to keep up with the impact of ever-changing tariff schedules.

And it’s being felt at Fairview-based FishUSA, one of five businesses across the nation to file a lawsuit, joined by several states, that led to the Supreme Court to rule the president did not have the authority to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

‘They don’t know the rules of the road’

For the first half of 2025, Brandon Mendoza, CEO of the Erie Regional Chamber and Growth Partnership, said he didn’t hear too much from his members about the impact of tariffs.

“The exporters and the folks buying stuff were able to kind of navigate those first few months,” he said.

That seemed to change in the second half of the year as tariff policy continued to ebb and flow.

“To be frank, the uncertainty was almost as bad as the tariffs,” he said. “They didn’t know the rules of the road. It was chaotic. From a business standpoint, you want to be able to look ahead and make plans. It’s hard to run a business if the rules are changing regularly.”

Mendoza said he heard complaints from business owners who were otherwise supporters of the president’s agenda.

Even on the heels of the Supreme Court decision, he’s not sure if things will change.

“I am hopeful, but I will be quite honest,” he said. “The response from the White House following the Supreme Court decision wasn’t that encouraging.”

‘Long-term planning is chaos’

Gretchen Blough, customs brokerage manager for Erie-based Logistics Plus, isn’t inclined to weigh in on the political wisdom of an aggressive tariff policy.

But she can say with some certainty that those policies have made life more complicated for her, her company and for thousands of companies that import and export in Erie and around the world.

Blough said she understands that the president’s tariff plans are aimed at bolstering manufacturing in the United States.

She also knows that won’t happen overnight.

“You can’t build factories right away,” she said.

A significant company with more than 1,400 employees, Logistics Plus added to that total in recent months.

“We have added people to our team just to answer questions about tariffs,” Blough said. “It’s taking a lot longer to field questions and we have to keep ourselves informed.”

Blough, who is often called on as an expert by NPR and other national media, said trade realities changed quickly.

Under the terms of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement, sometimes referred to as NAFTA 2.0., as many as 98% of all goods passed duty-free from one North American country to the next.

For the past year, companies like Logistics Plus have found themselves working with clients to make sense of tariffs that could change from one shipment to the next.

There was also the challenge of making separate calculations when portions of the same product were taxed at different rates.

Now, with the old tariff schedule suspended, questions remain about whether refunds will be issued or whether companies will have to file lawsuits to recover their money.

“It’s really hard,” Blough said. “We like to help our customers and we like them to be informed. When you don’t have clarity, it’s a bit frustrating.”

The confusion only grew when changing tariffs were met with retaliatory taxes.

“No one knows what to do,” she said. “Short term planning is hard, but long term planning is chaos.”

In his majority opinion for the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts underlined that sense of chaos. He wrote: “Since imposing each set of tariffs, the president has issued several increases, reductions and other modifications. One month after imposing the 10 percent drug trafficking tariffs on Chinese goods, he increased the rate to 20 percent. One month later, he removed a statutory exemption for Chinese goods under $800. Less than a week after imposing the reciprocal tariffs, the president increased the rate on Chinese goods from 34 percent to 84 percent.”

The president’s case for tariffs

President Trump, who already has introduced a new schedule of tariffs, argues they will spur more production in the United States and bolster’s the country’s status as a manufacturing power.

“Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again,” Trump told a joint session of Congress in March of 2025, according to a USA Today report,

The president, who said tariffs could one day replace income taxes, said $287 billion was generated by tariffs in 2025.

FishUSA founder says president didn’t have the authority

Dan Pastore, who founded FishUSA in 2000, said he never wanted to be at the center of the debate over tariffs.

But his business, which relies heavily on fishing gear built in other countries, much of it in China, was being hurt by the imposition of tariffs that topped 50%.

And the folks who buy fishing rods and lures would ultimately foot the bill.

“It’s been hard on the industry. We are very dependent on foreign suppliers,” said Pastore, a lawyer who ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress as a Democrat in 2022.

But neither FishUSA, which employs about 80 people, nor the other plaintiffs in the case filed by the Liberty Justice Center would likely have won based on nothing more than claims of hardship.

Instead, they argued that the president simply didn’t have the authority to impose tariffs, which are a function of Congress.

According to the lawsuit, “The unusual and extraordinary threat asserted as a national emergency by the Liberation Day Order is not an emergency, and is not unusual, extraordinary, new, unexpected, odd or even surprising.”

Ultimately, the nation’s highest court agreed.

Even now, Pastore is reluctant to discuss his role in the lawsuit.

The environment is politically charged. He’s not courting an argument and would like very much to do business with sports fishing enthusiasts of all persuasions.

He’s hopeful that Americans on both sides of the aisle can understand his perspective.

“I think we should be able to look at this from an apolitical position,” he said. “As an American, you should always want our politicians to following the Constitution.”