How are small businesses reacting to Trump’s tariffs announcement?

(NEW YORK) -- Wendy Brugh, owner of Dry Ridge Farm in Marshall, North Carolina, said President Donald Trump's tariffs announcement is like "pouring salt in a wound that is just now beginning to heal."

During a gathering of small business owners on Wednesday, she said tariffs will increase the costs of "everything from fertilizer and feed to construction materials and tractors," hitting the farming community while it still recovers from crop losses after Hurricane Helene.

"We're personally faced with the uncertainty of how retaliatory tariffs will affect our largest expense, our animal feed," Brugh told ABC News' Asheville affiliate WLOS.

Brugh and other small business owners are weighing in on the tariffs Trump unveiled against virtually all U.S. trading partners on Wednesday afternoon. He described the tariffs as "kind reciprocal" and will focus on nations he claimed were the worst offenders in trade relations with the U.S.

The new measures -- which Trump described as "historic" -- include a minimum baseline tariff of 10% on all trading partners and further, more targeted punitive levies on certain countries, including China, the European Union and Taiwan.

"We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us," he said, adding, "because we are being very kind."

Hendrick Svendsen, the owner of a furniture store in Merriam, Kansas, told ABC News on Wednesday he has decided to close his store due to Trump's tariffs announcement.

"We just made the decision we are going to close down, we will be out in August," Svendsen said.

He said there is no way to continue the store's operation by using American-made products, with 90% of their items made overseas.

"I don't think that furniture manufacturing is ever going to come back to the U.S. North Carolina, where it used to be made, it's like a ghost town," Svendsen said on ABC News Live. "When it comes to skill and workers, I don't think we have that in the U.S."

Furniture manufacturing jobs in the United States have declined over the past few months, with 336,900 reported in February, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Simon Bryant, a restaurant owner in San Francisco, told ABC station KGO that food costs have already been difficult to manage due to bird flu, and the tariffs could make things even more challenging.

"The reality is everyone's paying higher prices," Bryant said. "We have to figure out what to do as a community."

But, there are individuals who are optimistic about the tariffs, including Duane Paddock, the owner of a Chevrolet dealership in Buffalo, New York. He told ABC News Live that he has seen the best sales in 13 years.

While he is uncertain of the exact impact of the tariffs, he said he is hopeful that Trump's announcement is the "best thing for our country" and that his dealership will continue to "keep prices as low as possible and do our fair share to help the customers."

"Whether President Trump was a Democrat or Republican, I have to have faith in my president and that's what I choose to do," Paddock said.

He also stressed the importance of these tariffs allowing for products to be made in the United States.

"It's a great opportunity for people to get back with manufacturing and have an opportunity to have a great middle-class life and increase their compensation over the course of time," Paddock said.

James Evans, a manufacturer who produces car parts in the U.S., told Baltimore ABC affiliate WMAR the tariffs will be "great for us in six months to a year probably."

"I think in three, four years, it should set us up and other people that are manufacturing here in America for success," Evans said. "I'm fine with dealing with some headaches for the next six months to a year and hopefully things go the way I think they're gonna go and then we'll be good, but maybe not. Only time will tell."

In South Carolina, shrimp catchers are also pleased with Trump's tariff announcement. Rocky Magwood told Charleston ABC affiliate WCIV that he will now be able to "sell everything" he catches. According to the Southern Shrimp Alliance, 94% of shrimp consumed in the United States is imported, with India and Ecuador supplying nearly 70%.

"This is the greatest stuff we see," Magwood said. "Maybe people will want to buy our shrimp more. I can't say on the politics one way or another because I'm not into politics. That's not what feeds my family."

But Leah Ashburn, the president and CEO of Highland Brewing in North Carolina, said moving to American production is not feasible in all industries, especially her company, which relies on aluminum to make beer cans. While there are existing aluminum manufacturers in the United States, Canada is still the fourth-largest primary aluminum provider, behind China, India and Russia, according to the Canadian government.

In 2021, the United States accounted for less than 2% of global aluminum production, according to a Congressional Research Service Report.

"The U.S. simply can't pivot to making aluminum cans," Ashburn told WLOS. "Mining is not done here. Aluminum is 95% brought in from other countries, and we are dependent on Canada. The effort to make aluminum here would be complex, costly and take a lot of time. It won't come soon enough."

She also said her business cannot raise their prices because consumers have "hit their limit on what they're going to pay for a six-pack."

The 10% baseline tariff rate goes into effect on April 5, according to senior White House officials. The "kind reciprocal" tariffs go into effect April 9 at 12:01 a.m., officials said, and will affect roughly 60 countries.

ABC News' Jaclyn Lee, Alexandra Hutzler, Lauren Lantry and Michael Pappano contributed to this report

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