Trump Administration and Floriculture: Small Businesses Feeling Tariff Impacts
December 4, 2025 On occasion, the editorial team at Greenhouse Grower and Meister Media Worldwide will bring you the latest updates from the Trump administration’s policies and their impact on floriculture, from labor to the farm bill to funding for anything from federal loans to research and Extension. We also want to hear from you. What questions do you have about immigration enforcement, tariffs, or other topics? Let us know, and we’ll do our best to get you answers.
Here’s our update for Dec. 4.
Small Businesses Ae Taking the Biggest Tariff Hit
Rising tariffs are quietly squeezing small businesses faster than anyone expected. A new analysis from the Joint Economic Committee warns that retaliatory tariffs are placing disproportionate pressure on small businesses that lack the buffers of larger firms. Recent importer data shows 72% of small importers are seeing significant cost increases, with 44% reporting shipping cost spikes of 20% or more. With rising expenses and shrinking margins, smaller firms are bearing the brunt of escalating tariff measures.
Independent creators and micro-businesses selling to U.S. customers are also feeling the strain. In an online forum discussion, sellers said recent changes to import rules have made cross-border shipping far more expensive and complicated, with some postal systems pausing parcel deliveries to the U.S. entirely.
Now, many businesses face higher shipping fees, mandatory prepaid tariffs, and customers unwilling to cover the sudden cost increases, showing how even the smallest operators are being pulled into the broader tariff fallout.
Abigail Wright, Senior Business Advisor at ChamberofCommerce.org, says the latest wave of retaliatory tariffs is reshaping the economic landscape for small businesses in ways large firms are insulated from.
There are a number of reasons why retaliatory tariffs hit small businesses the hardest:
They lose pricing power immediately: Large firms can negotiate or shift suppliers; small businesses can’t. Tariff-driven cost spikes force them to raise prices or absorb losses that quickly drain cash flow.
They can’t absorb sudden “tariff shock” costs: Unexpected duties or prepaid tariff fees can wipe out the profit from an entire shipment, leaving tiny operations vulnerable after just one bad invoice.
Tariffs undercut their agility: Added paperwork, customs delays, and new compliance steps slow down the very speed and flexibility that small businesses rely on to stay competitive.
Customer trust drops when fees skyrocket: When buyers face surprise duties or higher shipping costs, many simply stop purchasing — a major risk for exporters who depend on repeat customers.
They get the worst shipping options: When carriers raise prices or postal systems pause shipments, small sellers have no leverage. They pay higher rates and get fewer alternatives than large-volume shippers.
“Tariffs can quietly close doors for the smallest players long before anyone notices,” Wright adds. “When a micro-business loses access to affordable shipping or sees overseas customers disappear, that’s not a policy debate, that’s someone’s livelihood. The danger is that we only measure tariffs in dollars, when the real damage shows up in lost chances, stalled growth, and businesses that never get the chance to scale.”
Facts on the New Proposed WOTUS Rule
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, together with Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle, announced a proposed rule that would establish a clear, durable, common-sense definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act.
The proposal follows the Supreme Court decision in Sackett. The agencies developed this proposed rule using input from multiple sources, including a pre-proposal recommendations docket, information from nine public listening sessions, and consultation comments from states, tribes, and local governments. Including comments submitted by the Association in 2022 seeking clarification and appropriate definitions to what is navigable. Key proposed revisions include:
- Defining key terms like “relatively permanent,” “continuous surface connection,” and “tributary” to appropriately delineate the scope of WOTUS consistent with the Clean Water Act and Supreme Court precedent.
- Establishing that jurisdictional tributaries must connect to traditional navigable waters either directly or through other features that provide predictable and consistent flow.
- Reaffirming that wetlands must be indistinguishable from jurisdictional waters through a continuous surface connection, which means that they must touch a jurisdictional water and hold surface water for a requisite duration year after year.
- Strengthening state and tribal decision-making authority by providing clear regulatory guidelines while recognizing their expertise in local land and water resources.
- Preserving and clarifying exclusions for certain ditches, prior converted cropland, and waste treatment systems; Adding a new exclusion for groundwater; and
- Incorporating locally familiar terminology, such as “wet season,” to help determine whether a water body qualifies as WOTUS.
In addition, the limitation to wetlands that have surface water at least during the wet season and abut a jurisdictional water will further limit the scope of permafrost wetlands that are considered to have a continuous surface connection under the proposed rule. These proposed changes are intended to provide clarity and consistency to the continuous surface connection definition.
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