President Donald Trump’s sweeping new tariffs have some local business owners worried.
In Dorchester, where there is a sizable Vietnamese community, customers on Thursday lined up for bánh mì at Ba Lẹ Restaurant and Bakery. Owner Jennifer Nguyen, a transplant from Vietnam, said her shop’s success is thanks to authentic ingredients imported from back home. When she saw the new tariffs on Vietnamese products, she couldn’t sleep.
“Everybody almost cried. It’s 46%. I don’t think it is easy to cover. Nobody can do the math for that,” she said.
Nguyen moved to Boston in 1982 and she is getting ready to celebrate 30 years in business on Dorchester Avenue. She takes pride in keeping her prices affordable and her products authentic.
“They [customers] come to grab a sandwich or something under $12, so they can bring to work and have some budget left for the family,” she said.
Larger wholesale businesses in Boston are also anticipating the effect of the tariffs. Trump’s plan calls for double-digit levies on products across Asian countries.
Doris Wong owns the food wholesale company Food-Pak Express on the border of Roxbury and Dorchester. They provide equipment and ingredients to Asian restaurants across New England, much of it imported. She said the tariffs are bad news for her business and for her customers.
“When the tariffs get up to 10, 20, 25, 40%, the prices get too high,” she said. “It will reflect down to the restaurant, and then the prices get higher. And then the consumer will say, 'Well, I can’t afford to go out to eat anymore.’ So it’ll take its toll.”
Wong said she has been in this line of work for many years and is hoping to weather the impacts of tariff hikes.
“We understand that it is something that needs to be done in a sense to help the economy,” she said, “but at the same time, we hope that tariffs won’t be that high and it will only be a temporary issue — because no matter what, the Asian community needs this product.”
Wong expressed confidence her business can make it through.
“I think we’re at the point where we’re so high in inflation and everything is due to come back down,” she said. “It has to reset.”
But Nguyen worried what the impact will be here, and among friends and family back in Vietnam.
“I love my customers, I love the neighborhood, I love the community,” she said. “I want to continue to do the business.”
