{"id":6972,"date":"2025-04-13T14:32:58","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T18:32:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/04\/13\/for-restaurants-that-rely-on-imports-the-tariff-news-is-scant-relief\/"},"modified":"2025-04-13T14:32:58","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T18:32:58","slug":"for-restaurants-that-rely-on-imports-the-tariff-news-is-scant-relief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2025\/04\/13\/for-restaurants-that-rely-on-imports-the-tariff-news-is-scant-relief\/","title":{"rendered":"For Restaurants That Rely on Imports, the Tariff News Is Scant Relief"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Every waiter knows the type: the volatile diner who barges in with a list of demands, orders an off-the-menu item that sends the kitchen into a panic and then at the last minute changes his mind and decides he\u2019ll just have the steak.<\/p>\n

So if anybody knows how to handle President Trump\u2019s stunning reversal on tariffs, it\u2019s people in the restaurant business. Still, it\u2019s safe to say that they\u2019ve had a rough week.<\/p>\n

Chefs who had been furiously calling their suppliers, stockpiling imported ingredients ahead of what seemed certain to be drastic price jumps, got a temporary reprieve on Wednesday. Hours after they\u2019d gone into effect, Mr. Trump put on hold a patchwork of tariffs that targeted 57 countries with rates ranging from 11 to 51 percent. For three months, he declared, all imports would be hit with a flat 10 percent tariff except products from China, which face tariffs that have vaulted to 145 percent. Nobody knows what will happen after the three months are up.<\/p>\n

If you are a restaurateur, none of this makes it easier to sleep at night, or to decide how much to charge for dan-dan noodles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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The National Restaurant Association has brought in supply-chain experts to advise restaurateurs on handling disruptions in the flow of imported seafood and vegetables. Owners who drew up their business plans in the era of free trade are asking whether they still make sense when governments around the world are using shrimp and wine as chips in a high-stakes poker game.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cRestaurants are the least profitable businesses on any Main Street in America,\u201d said Sean Kennedy, the group\u2019s executive vice president for public affairs. \u201cWith razor-thin profit margins, we are not equipped to deal with dramatic changes in food prices. Long-term tariffs leave us with no margin for error in holding menu prices as low as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Jarrett Wrisley, a chef who serves dishes from southwestern China and northern Thailand at his restaurant Shan in Bozeman, Mont., ordered two pallets of dark soy sauce, Zhenjiang vinegar, Sichuan peppercorns, roasted sesame paste and other ingredients from China. At the time, he thought those products were facing a mere 104 percent tariff. Now, his suppliers say they aren\u2019t sure they will be available in a month or two.<\/p>\n

The bison, pork and other meats on Shan\u2019s menu are raised in Montana. But nearly all the seasonings in Mr. Wrisley\u2019s pantry are imported from China and Thailand, which until Wednesday had been threatened with a 34 percent tariff. After his suppliers raise their prices, he expects he will have to change some recipes. He said he can adjust to using Kikkoman soy sauce from factories in Wisconsin and California. There is no American-made substitute for many other ingredients, like fermented fava-and-chile paste from Sichuan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s aged in amphorae, it undergoes a long fermentation, the chiles are from Sichuan,\u201d he said. \u201cIt can\u2019t be reproduced in the United States. And I don\u2019t think the point of this trade war is to onshore the production of niche Asian food products.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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One of his purveyors, Susie Kasem of ARJ Oregon, an importer in Portland, has heard from almost every restaurant she supplies with sticky rice, fish sauce and other Thai staples. She had to put limits on their orders because so many chefs were trying to load up their shelves before the tariffs went into effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so busy because everyone\u2019s calling me today, yesterday, the day before,\u201d Ms. Kasem said. \u201cI don\u2019t have any idea how to answer them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For restaurants that buy tequila or anything else from Mexico, Wednesday\u2019s abrupt turnaround \u2014 the White House said that the 10 percent flat rate did not apply to Mexico and Canada a short time after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that it did \u2014 was all too familiar. Mr. Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on Mexican goods in February, then removed it two days later. He did the same thing again in March.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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Trucks carrying avocado, huitlacoche and other key ingredients that the Colorado chef Johnny Curiel uses in his four Mexican restaurants parked on the far side of border for several days in March as the dispute played out. Worried about future shortages, Mr. Curiel recently bought five tons of the imported corn that goes into his tortillas. He is negotiating directly with farmers who grow chiles and herbs in Mexico, a move that would hurt his longtime distributors.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not helping them, it\u2019s helping me,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that weighs heavy on me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next month, a farmer north of Boulder will plant 10 acres of heirloom C\u00f3nico corn for him and another Colorado chef. They had been discussing the idea for some time, but finally decided to do it after Mr. Trump threatened Mexico with new tariffs early this year. Although those are now delayed, Mr. Curiel said that changing his supply chain will help him make plans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s great that it\u2019s not going into effect,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at the same time, there\u2019s the uncertainty of not knowing what\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

That uncertainty was a sore topic for those who attended an annual chefs\u2019 conference in Philadelphia earlier this week. After listening to peers who were worried that their costs would spike on Wednesday, the Chicago chef Erick Williams tried to bring some perspective to the coming crisis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWhen people say, \u201cWe\u2019re screwed,\u2019 I have a hard time believing it,\u201d Mr. Williams said in an interview later. \u201cIf we managed to survive and adapt during the pandemic, then surely we have the capacity to navigate this moment, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he pointed out, restaurants sell more than food and drinks. They specialize in creating environments where people want to spend time together, swapping ideas and sharing cultures.<\/p>\n

In many restaurants, though, the culture people come to immerse themselves in is one from another country. Imported ingredients aren\u2019t the only thing on offer, but they help get customers through the door. Any policy that makes those items less profitable threatens to undermine the whole enterprise.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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At Orion Bar in Brooklyn, N.Y., soju and instant ramen from South Korean serve as gateway drugs for other national exports like K-pop, K-movies and televised K-dramas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cAs someone who works a lot in sharing and spreading Korean culture, interest in it has been increasing and the tariffs are concerning because it potentially could affect that growth,\u201d said Irene Yoo, the chef and an owner, the day before a 25 percent levy was paused.<\/p>\n

Many customers, she said, \u201cwant to come into our place to experience what they\u2019ve seen in a K-drama.\u201d Orion Bar sells a lot of soju and imported Terra Lager, so she was particularly worried about higher prices on alcohol.<\/p>\n

Eric Sze, the chef and an owner of the Taiwanese restaurants Wenwen and 886 in New York, was relieved this week by the hiatus on the 22 percent tariff on ingredients like sacha sauce and soy paste. These Taiwanese condiments are essential to dishes like 886\u2019s sacha black-pepper beef, which help him to tell his customers about the country where he and his business partner grew up. \u201cFood acts as the most accessible cultural ambassador,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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Roscioli NYC, the SoHo outpost of a popular string of restaurants in Rome, has been worried about the cost of Italian wine, cheese and pasta, as well as the bottled sauces and preserved vegetables it sells.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s impossible to imagine operating a restaurant without these products,\u201d said Mattia Moliterni, the managing partner. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to give up on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Restaurants now have to wait to learn how far the prices of imported food and beverages will rise under the new 10 percent tariffs. And they are being left in suspense as they wonder when, or whether, the more severe rates will come back. Tariffs of any size are a shock to American restaurant culture, which has grown larger and more interesting in part because free-trade policies of the past few decades have made it possible to get almost anything from almost any country on earth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been wonderful for chefs and also for consumers,\u201d said Mr. Wrisley, the chef in Montana. \u201cTo take that away in the interest of reindustrializing the United States doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow <\/em>New York Times Cooking on Instagram<\/em>, <\/em>Facebook<\/em>, <\/em>YouTube<\/em>, <\/em>TikTok<\/em> and <\/em>Pinterest<\/em>. <\/em>Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice<\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every waiter knows the type: the volatile diner who barges in with a list of demands, orders an off-the-menu item that sends the kitchen into a panic and then at the last minute changes his mind and decides he\u2019ll just have the steak. So if anybody knows how to handle President Trump\u2019s stunning reversal on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6972","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-market","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6972","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}