Eau Claire Business Owners Share Struggles with Senator Baldwin

Senator Tammy Baldwin met with local small business leaders in Eau Claire on Wednesday for a roundtable on how tariffs are affecting them.

The roundtable at The Local Store in downtown Eau Claire mainly focused on the volatility of the current small business environment, particularly how tariffs and trade wars have disrupted their ability to plan for the future.

Local business owners say they’re struggling to stay afloat amid significant cost increases for supplies and materials. They also say their customers are struggling to continue to support their businesses with the increased cost of housing, healthcare, and child care.

Following the roundtable, Senator Baldwin shared her concerns about the effect losing local small businesses could have on communities, especially those in more rural areas.

“If you think about Main Streets and small businesses sort of being the heart of the community, the cultural reflection of the community, when they’re in jeopardy, communities are in jeopardy,” she said. “And what saddens me in this discussion is so many of these challenges were completely avoidable, are self-imposed by this administration, or unilaterally imposed by this administration. The tariffs, the trade wars, and the refusal to address costs.”

The City of Eau Claire has taken various steps to support existing small businesses and encourage more entrepreneurship. One of those steps involved the creation of a new Business Startup Toolkit meant to help aspiring business owners access everything they need, from loan programs to navigating zoning regulations. However, initiatives like the new startup toolkit can’t address all the root causes of why so many small businesses are struggling.

Senator Baldwin highlighted some potential relief on the tariff issues as the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether President Donald Trump actually has the authority to implement them by declaring emergencies at all. If the Supreme Court rules that he does have that authority, Senator Baldwin also says Congress can take action and declare that the emergency behind the declaration of a specific tariff does not exist.