‘Take a year to recover’: Toymaker counts cost of Trump tariffs ‘chaos’

Far from celebrating a victory against the US President’s tariffs, a Virginia businessman is hoping for a ‘time machine’ to undo the harm caused to his fledgling firm.

A toymaker who started his business in his grandmother’s living room has said it will take a year to recover from the “chaos” of tariffs after defeating President Trump’s signature economic policy in court.

David Levi, 31, is the founder of MicroKits, one of five small businesses that succeeded in overturning Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs.

Levi told The Times after the ruling on Wednesday night that it would take his Virginia-based electronics company the rest of the year to recover from “these last few months of chaos”.

After being laid off in 2020, Levi began experimenting with electronics while isolating with his grandmother during the Covid pandemic.

He steadily grew his business over five years and was due to sell 20,000 of his electronics kits, which teach children how to build basic musical synthesisers and theremins, this year.

Reduced hours and sales

However, MicroKits was hit by Trump’s announcement of tariffs and Levi was forced to reduce the hours of his one part-time member of staff and increase prices by $US10 on his two main products. He now expects to sell only 11,000 kits this year.

Levi relies on Chinese imports for 60 per cent of his parts before assembling the kits at his warehouse in Charlottesville, Virginia.

American companies supply another 20 per cent of his parts and the remainder comes from other countries.

“To run a business, especially a small business where you only have so much cash available, you need to be really smart about how you invest it,” he said.

“That means you need to know what the world will be like in the next few years. So when I order parts, it might take three months for them to arrive.

“It would be very disruptive if the taxes on those parts changed while they were coming in.”

The United States Court of International Trade in lower Manhattan has temporarily upended Trump’s tariffs. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

Joint fight

To take on the White House, Levi was joined by a mix of firms including FishUSA, a shop selling fishing rods, tackle and bait on the shores of Lake Erie; Vos Selections, a New York importer of fine wines; Genova Pipe, a Utah-based manufacturer of plumbing appliances; and Terry Cycling, a retailer of women’s cycling apparel from Vermont.

Levi, who is celebrating his 32nd birthday on Friday, said the decision by a Manhattan-based panel of three judges from the Court of International Trade to block Trump’s tariffs was the best present he could have hoped for – except for a “time machine” that could undo the harm caused to his business.

He said he learnt that he had defeated the White House when he was going to buy some speciality pasta near his home and decided on a whim to purchase an Italian cake to celebrate.

Compensation question

The White House has said it will appeal against the decision in a dispute that is likely to end up at the Supreme Court.

After their victory at the Court of International Trade, the small businesses affected by the tariffs disruption could be due compensation. Their case was supported by a separate lawsuit filed by the state of Oregon and backed by 12 states.

Jeffrey Schwab, a senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, the law firm representing the five small businesses, vowed to continue the fight to the Supreme Court if necessary.

“We think that this case is important because of the horrible economic effects that it’s having on not only our clients, but businesses and consumers across the world,” he said.

The three judges on the Court of International Trade, one of whom was appointed by Trump himself, found that the president did not have the authority to impose sweeping tariffs using the emergency powers legislation from 1977.

“It’s an important case with respect to limits on the president’s power,” Schwab said. “The president just can’t do whatever he wants”.

THE TIMES