Good morning! There will be more female athletes than male at the 2028 Olympics, proxy voting push blocked by the House, and female founders are asking Trump to consider small businesses in tariff policy. – Start small. Markets recovered yesterday after President Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause on retaliatory tariffs. But 125% tariffs on China remain—and a group of female founders worry they may be the casualty of that China trade war. They’re lobbying the White House to consider the impact of tariffs on small businesses.
Thirty-six female founders with a combined $800 million in revenue this morning sent a letter addressed to Trump, Congress, and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer asking for tariff exemptions and support for U.S. small businesses. Allison Luvera and Lauren De Niro Pipher, cofounders of the wine brand Juliet, spearheaded the effort. The letter was signed by founders in food and beverage like Aishwarya Iyer of olive oil brand Brightland and Hannah Cheng of dumpling brand Mimi Cheng’s; in beauty and personal care like Cyndi Ramirez-Fulton of Chillhouse and the cofounders of Dune Suncare; in apparel like Rebecca Minkoff and the cofounders of the Meghan Markle-backed Cesta Collective; and more.
“We are becoming unintended collateral damage in an escalating global trade war,” they write. The letter shares examples of that impact—Juliet, while mostly produced in the U.S., has no viable domestic supplier for a key packaging component and expects costs to rise $200,000 annually. A home cleaning brand says its packaging costs would rise 80%.
The group is asking for three things: tariff exemptions for small businesses below a designated revenue or employee threshold; assessments of tariff impact on small businesses before tariffs are put into effect; and support for transitions to domestic supply chains, including through tax incentives, grants, and technical assistance. “That’s something people are most concerned about,” Luvera says, “if these tariffs go into effect and there is no viable solution domestically, then what happens?” There is precedent for tariff exemptions—although so far Trump’s exemptions are mostly for materials for manufacturing and vaccines.
Luvera, who cofounded Juliet four years ago, started preparing for this effort weeks ago, as the likelihood of tariffs grew firmer. “There’s been a lot of frustration, a lot of anger, and a lot of, quite frankly, panic,” she says of her conversations with founders. She hopes to take advantage of the 90-day pause to have a dialogue about the impact of tariffs on small businesses. While the pause on other tariffs is encouraging, she says for most founders in this cohort China is their biggest concern—and those tariffs haven’t changed. At her own brand, which has been in market for two-and-a-half years and has seven figures in revenue, she says current tariffs would see costs increase by 30% and gross product margins reduced by double digits.
“Even an impact to one component or one small part of your packaging could have very real, almost insurmountable impact on your bottom line,” Luvera says of the effects on small businesses. “That’s what we were thinking about when we decided to band together with these other women.”
Emma Hinchliffeemma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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