OCALA, FL (352today.com) – President Donald Trump has made it clear that U.S. manufacturing is a big deal, calling the tagline “Made in America” an “economic and national security” priority.

Manufacturing employment in the U.S. has declined steadily over the years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 12.8 million manufacturing jobs in January 2025, a significant drop from 19.6 million in June 1979 – a 35% decrease.

The lack of employment has particularly impacted small manufacturing companies, which comprise around 99% of all American manufacturing.

To address these concerns, the Trump administration introduced tariffs on a range of imported goods. According to statements from the administration, the goal of the tariffs is to “ensure fair trade, protect American workers, and reduce the trade deficit.”

“These tariffs seek to address the injustices of global trade, re-shore manufacturing, and drive economic growth for the American people,” Trump wrote on The White House website.

While some small businesses have found the tariffs useful, the same cannot be said for businesses that rely heavily on imports.

Parish Tanner, owner of Ocala Car Audio, says his shop is already feeling the impact.

“It’s scary times right now… It’s still early for a lot of us, but we’re seeing our vendors raise their prices 20-30% and more,” says Tanner. One of his vendors, he notes, is currently paying $1.25 million a week in tariffs.

“A lot of these vendors are raising their prices based on replenishment costs and not what it costs to be on the shelf,” says Tanner, whose business relies on imported goods for roughly 80% of its inventory.

He says some Chinese suppliers have stopped shipping products to U.S. vendors altogether. That’s led to steep cost increases – like his shop’s best-selling dashcam, which used to retail for $239 but now costs him $232 to purchase wholesale.

“You have to raise the prices… but you have to be careful with how you raise them because it’s still a competitive market,” says Tanner. “It’s also a matter of how much of my inventory I can burn through before I have to raise prices.”

Tanner supports the idea of reshoring manufacturing but acknowledges the short-term pain.

“If we can’t ship products into other countries at a competitive rate, then we can never put manufacturing back here,” he says. “It does suck, and it’s painful, but I do think that they’re trying to solve the problems that we’re dealing with.”

He hopes the government will use tariff revenues to support small businesses hit hardest by the shift.

“I talked to our industry guys, and pretty much every electronic store I talked to is dealing with this same thing, as well as the distributors,” says Tanner. “The scary thing is nobody knows what’s going on.”

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