How Trump's tariff pause is being received on Long Island

President Donald Trump's three-month pause on "reciprocal" tariffs for most nations sent cratered stocks skyrocketing Wednesday. But on Long Island, there appeared to be more nervous relief than jubilation.

Business leaders welcomed the pause as a way to reevaluate and be in a better financial position in three months while shoppers who spoke to Newsday said their confidence after days of market gyrations remained shaky.

"Now we get to hold our breath for another 90 days," said Matt Cohen, CEO of the business group Long Island Association.

"It’s certainly a positive development and will allow businesses more time to plan and prepare in the event that tariffs are implemented," Cohen added.  "But again, we all have to hold our breath. The uncertainty emanating from the administration is not guaranteed to go away."

Long-term worry

Also, Cohen noted, Trump’s pullback does not extend to China, a major trading partner. Last year, China exported $463 billion in goods and services to the United States, while the United States sent China $199 billion in exports. Hours after China raised the tariff on U.S. goods to 84%, Trump on Wednesday raised the tariff on Chinese imports to 125%.

A 10% baseline tariffs for most nations went into effect Saturday.

At a Trader Joe’s in Plainview on Wednesday, Elizabeth Basileo, 72, of Lynbrook, was thinking about what it all means. 

"I am worried about what’s going to happen in the future," said Basileo, a retired teacher who works part-time for Jericho Public Library. With "so many things" being imported from China, Basileo said she was "worried about prices going up."

And she didn’t agree with or see the strategy in Trump’s trade moves.

"He’s just being provocative," Basileo said. "He just wants to create news."

An April 2 executive order signed by Trump said the tariffs were intended to correct "injustices of global trade, re-shore manufacturing, and drive economic growth for the American people."

Trade wars

Administration officials said Wednesday the president's walk-back of tariffs was part of a negotiating strategy to goad China into a bad trade position.

"What we are watching now is a real life trade war," Cohen said. "No one is going to win from this. Long Island consumers, businesses, are not going to win by China and the U.S. playing a game of chicken with tariffs and people’s wallets."

Steven Kent, chief economist for the LIA and an economics professor at Molloy University, said the 90-day delay would give companies on Long Island time to research supply chain options. But, he said, the specter of future tariffs, combined with significant funding cutbacks by the federal government, would make large-scale investment a challenge.

"It’s difficult for people to make decisions in this type of environment," Kent said, adding that "90 days, for the average businessperson, is too short a time to make a large decision" about supply chain or factory expansion.

Tariffs on Chinese goods will likely act as a drag on Long Island businesses, he said.

"One of the biggest imported products from China is computers and technology," he said. "Virtually every business on Long Island uses those products in some way," and now their cost is likely to spike.

It was not fully clear how the tariff delay would affect consumer spending on Long Island. Some shoppers, Kent said, may have already rushed to buy certain products, like cars or electronics, before the tariffs kicked in.

Wayne Siegel, president of Legend Auto Group, which sells automobiles out of dealerships in Syosset, Amityville and Massapequa, said he expected most shoppers for his cars would "stay the course ... In my organization we’re helping customers get into cars, making whatever deals we can make."

Immediate effect

For Bedgear LLC, a Farmingdale-based manufacturer, seller and exporter of bedding, pillows, sheets, mattress protectors and blankets, the effect of the ongoing trade wars has been immediate.

"It impacts every business, but it impacts me doubly because I employ Americans to distribute our goods to Mexico and Canada," said Eugene Alletto, CEO and founder of the company, which has around 70 employees on Long Island as well as factories in Salt Lake City and South Carolina.

"Most recently the Canadians said to me 'you have to take the American flag off of your products,' " Alletto recalled. "I never thought in my life I would be asked to do that."

Bonnie Engelson, 67, of Plainview, said she worries the tariffs had already done lasting damage to America’s standing.

"We’re losing all our allies and the world is going to be against us," Engelson, who owns a retail business, said at Woodbury Plaza shopping center in Plainview. "I’m very concerned about the stock market. We already lost so much money. I’m not sure we’ll ever get back."

She added, sardonically: "If I could, I’d take money out and put it in my mattress."

With AP