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Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Mischief Toy Store of St. Paul joins lawsuit against Trump tariffs
By their own admission, Grand Avenue toy store owners Millie Adelsheim and Dan Marshall have never filed a lawsuit before, let alone one aimed at pausing international tariffs. Suing the White House struck them as an ambitious but appropriate place to start. 'We estimate about 85% of our toys are impacted by Trump's 145% tariffs,' said Adelsheim and Marshall, the husband-and-wife co-owners of the Mischief Toy Store, in an open letter Friday explaining how they've been thrust into the front lines of an international trade war. 'Every day, we're getting notices of price increases from our suppliers. Several have left the US market altogether and many others have paused production. As a country we will be seeing huge price increases and shortages on every kind of consumer product — not just toys — in the near future.' With the financial future of their shop and their industry on the line, Mischief Toy Store has joined with Stonemaier Games and four other board game manufacturers, a children's clothing company called Princess Awesome, a metal treating company and an importer of fine art to file legal action against the U.S. government in an effort to roll back international tariffs recently imposed by the Trump administration. The lawsuit — 'Princess Awesome & Stonemaier Games, et al. v. Customs' — was filed Thursday in the U.S. Court of International Trade in Manhattan, with the 10 plaintiffs represented, free of charge, by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a non-profit Libertarian law firm. Around St. Paul, Adelsheim and Marshall are known for backing progressive causes, making the group effort 'a somewhat strange partnership for us. While we may disagree on other issues, we are all in full agreement on the need to check Trump's abuses of power. He is not a king and we cannot allow him to act like one.' The plaintiffs argue that the U.S. Constitution grants Congress, and not the president, the power to impose financial tariffs on foreign countries, and that the tariffs will be financially devastating to their businesses and industries. On Feb. 1, the president imposed tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China, citing the need to address illegal immigration and fentanyl importation. On April 2, he expanded the tariffs to almost every country, calling trade imbalances a national emergency that empowered him to take unilateral action. He later paused most of those tariffs for 90 days, allowing time to renegotiate trade deals. While certain Trump policies have gained a following with segments of the American public, about 6-in-10 Americans polled have said they disapprove of the tariffs, according to the Pew Research Center, and a majority of the population has taken a skeptical view of the president's overall handling of the economy. Marshall, in an interview Friday, said kids aren't playing with analog toys as much as they used to, given growing interest in video and digital pastimes. For some vendors and suppliers, the tariffs will be a final nail in the coffin. 'We source American-made toys as much as we can, and one of our American suppliers is going out of business — Two Bros Bows,' he said. 'Kids don't play with analog toys like they used to, and they're not buying American. We're the last toy store in St. Paul. If all those things go up by 200%, it's going to be really hard to stay in business.' Based in St. Louis, Missouri, Stonemaier works with Chinese firms to manufacture the popular card-driven board game 'Wingspan,' which would be heavily impacted by a 145% tariff on imported products from China. For the board game company, that amounts to a $14.50 tax for every $10 spent manufacturing the game, which adds up to a looming payment of nearly $1.5 million, according to a written statement from Stonemaier. 'We will not stand idle while our livelihood — and the livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and contractors in the U.S. — are treated like pawns in a political game,' said Jamey Stegmaier, co-founder of Stonemaier Games, in the statement. Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include XYZ Game Labs, Rookie Mage, Spielcraft and TinkerHouse Games, as well as Quent Cordair Fine Art, the KingSeal kitchen supply company and 300 Below, a cryogenic processing company. Similar cases have been filed by the New Civil Liberties Alliance in the Northern District of Florida, Tranel Law in District of Montana and the Liberty Justice Center in the Court of International Trade, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation. 'This might put us at risk,' wrote Adelsheim and Marshall, the Mischief Toy Store owners, in their open letter Friday. 'Who knows how Trump and his minions will respond … We'll be doing everything we can to keep things as normal as possible.' The Grand Avenue shop owners were previously associated with Peapods Natural Toys, which closed in 2015 after 16 years in operation in St. Paul. 'We'd also like to make it clear that we've always supported American-made toys and we stock them when we can,' they wrote. 'Those of you who remember Peapods will know that we specialized in Made in the USA toys, held a Minnesota Toy Fair to promote local toymakers, and even founded the Handmade Toy Alliance to support small batch US toymakers. The steady loss of US and EU toymakers was one of the main reasons we closed Peapods back in 2015. Tariffs cannot and will not reverse this trend.' St. Paul shooter gets 19½-year prison sentence for killing man on University Avenue who had his back to him St. Paul chief finance officer John McCarthy leaves for League of MN Cities MPCA sets May 8 deadline or it may yank St. Paul foundry's permit Jim Gelbmann: Our partisan endorsement process is unrepresentative, polarizing and self-serving History Theatre season includes new musical about the St. Paul Winter Carnival
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Could 'Princess Awesome' Defeat Trump's Tariffs?
It sounds like something out of a comic book: Princess Awesome vs. Tariff Man. And, as so often seems to be the case in those stories, the would-be hero faces daunting odds against a powerful villain, with the fate of the world—or at least a chunk of the global economy—hanging in the balance. Princess Awesome LLC, a Maryland-based shop that sells nerdy apparel for kids and adults, is one of several plaintiffs in a new lawsuit challenging the legitimacy of President Donald Trump's unilateral tariff powers. Other plaintiffs in the suit include five sellers of tabletop games and board games, an art studio, a kitchen supply company, and a toy store. All say they have paid tariffs or expect to have to pay them in the near future, as their businesses depend on imports. In a blog post on the company's website earlier this month, Princess Awesome cofounder Rebecca Melsky showed how tariffs were increasing the prices of her products. "It's bad for the world, for the country, for you, and for all companies, but particularly small ones," she wrote. "Big businesses will have an easier time absorbing the extra costs and passing them on to the consumer." In the complaint filed this week, Princess Awesome says it has already paid over $1,000 in tariffs this year, with more payments expected on upcoming shipments from Bangladesh, India, and Peru. One of Princess Awesome's sidekicks in the lawsuit is Stonemaier Games, a board game company founded in 2012. Orders that are ready to ship from China could cost the company "millions [of dollars] in tariffs," the lawsuit alleges. "We will not stand idle while our livelihood—and the livelihoods of thousands of small business owners and contractors in the U.S.—are treated like pawns in a political game," said Jamey Stegmaier, cofounder of Stonemaier Games, in a statement. "We now face a $14.50 tariff tax for every $10 we spent on manufacturing with our trusted long-term partner in China. For Stonemaier Games, that amounts to upcoming tariff payments of nearly $1.5 million." The lawsuit was filed this week in the U.S. Court of International Trade, a special federal court that handles disputes over tariffs and trade deals, by the Pacific Legal Foundation. It alleges that Trump overstepped the authority granted by the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) when he announced a universal 10 percent tariff on all imports to the United States earlier this month. The Trump administration has also used IEEPA to impose massive tariffs on imports from China. The lawsuit argues that Trump's use of IEEPA is unlawful since the law does not explicitly give presidents the power to levy tariffs. It also argues, as other critics of Trump's tariffs have, that the law allows for presidential action only in response to an "unusual and extraordinary threat," and that the free exchange of goods across national borders does not qualify as either. Separate from the Princess Awesome lawsuit, 12 states filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of International Trade on Wednesday, also challenging Trump's tariffs on the grounds that the president overstepped the powers granted by IEEPA. "The president does not have the power to raise taxes on a whim, but that's exactly what President Trump has been doing with these tariffs," New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the 12 state attorneys general who filed the lawsuit, said in a statement. Both the attorneys general and the small business owners are right. Board games, clothes, and other imported goods do not constitute an "unusual" or "extraordinary" threat that justifies a massive tax increase on Americans. Trump's tariffs are economically foolish and legally dubious. Courts (and Congress) should move quickly to strike them down. The post Could 'Princess Awesome' Defeat Trump's Tariffs? appeared first on
Axios
08-04-2025
- Business
- Axios
How Trump's tariffs will affect your favorite D.C. small business
D.C.'s small business community and maker scene are scrambling to navigate President Trump's tariffs, business owners tell Axios. The big picture: The " Liberation Day" tariffs are imposing a baseline 10% tariff on U.S. imports. China, meanwhile, is set to see 104% tariffs. They're hitting virtually every country on earth (except Russia) and nearly all goods. And they're set to take effect Wednesday. Zoom in: Many D.C. business owners are worried the tariffs will mean they have to up prices — potentially deterring customers at a time when they have less money to spend. Increased costs could also impact hiring and expansion. By the numbers: The District has over 75,000 small businesses, comprising over 98% of all businesses in the city, per the Greater Washington Board of Trade And small businesses employ 48% of D.C.'s workforce. The intrigue: "Locally made" is a big selling point for many DMV-based products — but many of the materials used to assemble these items come from overseas, says Carina Romo of Shop Made in D.C. Think tea leaves, tins for candles, cans for drinks, packaging, hardware — the list goes on. The chainlet's makers are currently trying to increase stock so they don't have to raise prices. But "supply and pricing remain the biggest questions right now," Romo tells Axios. Case in point: " We are very worried" about being able to remain in business, says Rebecca Melsky, co-founder of Princess Awesome, a local children's clothing brand that's been around since 2013. (Melsky lives in Brookland, her co-founder in Silver Spring.) Manufacturing clothes in the U.S. is difficult, says Melsky — it's cheaper, more streamlined and more efficient to work with foreign manufacturers. "Small businesses," she says," are going to hurt from [higher tariffs] far more than Target and Walmart." Pre-tariffs, Melsky budgeted for a dress made in Bangladesh to cost $13.32 with normal duties, she says. Now it will cost $17.76 — a 33% increase. After a manufacturer's suggested retail price for a dress made in Hong Kong jumped by about $5, Melsky tells Axios, Princess Awesome raised the price on their website and included a note that the increase was due to "President Trump's decision to raise tariffs on China." But they're cognizant that customers will pay only so much for kids' clothes. "It's very, very nerve-wracking and stressful and frustrating," says Melsky. What they're saying: The D.C. Chamber of Commerce is monitoring the impact of tariffs on local businesses and meeting with local owners, chamber president Chinyere Hubbard tells Axios in a statement.
