The Chamber calls on New York’s Congressional delegation to shield small businesses from tariff impact
May 5, 2025
Today, the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce sent this open letter to the entire New York Congressional delegation:
OPEN LETTER TO THE NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION
The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce represents the 129,000+ businesses across the borough of Manhattan, which is the heart of New York's economy. Collectively, these businesses employ more than 2.4 million people and generate $939 billion in annual GDP.
We support the US Chamber of Commerce’s proposed “tariff exclusion process” (announced on April 30, 2025) and we call on the federal government to adopt it immediately in order to save New York's small businesses and stave off a recession while the administration negotiates bilateral trade deals.
Specifically, this “tariff exclusion process” should:
- Provide an automatic exclusion from the new tariffs for any small business importer. Small businesses do not have the margin or capital reserves to sustain the increased tariffs, nor do they have the ability to quickly modify supply chains.
- Provide automatic exclusions for all products that cannot be produced in the U.S. or are not readily available from domestic sources. Tariffs on coffee, bananas, cocoa, certain minerals, and other products not generally available in the U.S. only raise prices for small businesses and consumers. The same applies to tariffs on many other bespoke industrial inputs critical to American manufacturers.
- Establish a process for businesses to expeditiously obtain exclusions in situations where the company can demonstrate that, as applied, the tariff imposes significant risks to U.S. employment. More than 40 million American jobs depend on trade. Protecting these jobs and multiplying them is imperative to drive greater economic growth and American prosperity.