Wisconsin businesses react to Supreme Court tariff ruling

MADISON, Wis. — Many Wisconsin companies, farmers and small business owners are hopeful that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a big chunk of President Donald Trump’s tariff policy will help them.

Molly Moran is the owner of Table Wine in Madison, which sells wine, spirits and beer from around the world. She said she believes the ruling could provide a much-needed boost to her bottom line.

“I could go back to probably longer-range planning because for a lot of this past year, it’s been kind of like, don’t even think more than a month or two ahead of time because who knows what’s going to be happening,” Moran said about the toll tariffs took on sales.

But, like so many others, she said she’s still unsure about what’s going to happen next.

“Wines that are delivered next week, do they not have tariffs on them?” Moran asked. “Does that affect my pricing immediately? How will that change ordering? You know, like how quickly will we see things from the store standpoint?”

Spectrum News also talked to the head of Weyco Group, which is based in the Milwaukee area. The company makes designer shoes under high-end brands like Florsheim, Nunn Bush, Stacy Adams and Bogs. Many of the shoes are imported from China and India.

Weyco Group President and CEO Tom Florsheim said tariffs have added a huge cost to do business over the past year. He said he believes this new ruling creates more uncertainty in the short term, but he’s hoping it leads to more clarity, and checks and balances on tariff policy in the long term.

Doug Rebout, a farmer and the president of the Wisconsin Soybean Association, agreed. Soybean farmers have been hit particularly hard by tariffs, as China has always been the main importer of Wisconsin’s soybeans.

Rebout said that the latest developments are causing more unpredictability right now. Farmers have to plant crops months in advance, and that’s hard to do when they don’t know what the market will look like.

Still, Rebout said he hopes it leads to some relief.

Not all industries are affected by the Supreme Court ruling on tariffs. According to a statement from the Great Lakes Timber Professionals Association, “Tariffs imposed using other trade authorities, including 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, and wood products, are not impacted.”

For Larry Krueger, the vice president of Krueger Lumber Company in Manitowoc County, that’s a daunting realization.

“You’d like to be able to sell as much as you can to a customer, but you sure don’t want to have to ship a bunch of product over in containers, then have to pay to bring the product back because there’s a new tariff,” Krueger said.