SF businesses wonder what Supreme Court ruling means for them after Trump’s tariffs struck down

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — After a landmark ruling, President Donald Trump’s so-called reciprocal tariffs have officially been ruled illegal.

“I was honestly really surprised,” said Ann Harrison.

Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s sweeping tariffs, upending central plank of economic agenda

Harrison is an economist and the former dean of the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley.

She says studies have shown the vast majority of the tariff costs have been paid by American consumers and businesses.

Since the tariffs first came into effect back in April, ABC7 Eyewitness News has been in touch with several local businesses in San Francisco.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, we wanted to talk to some of them again to hear their reaction.”

UPDATE: President Trump wants to impose 15% tariff, up from 10% he announced after Supreme Court decision

One of those establishments is Asia Star Fantasy in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

Owner Nancy Yu Law says the tariffs have drastically increased shipping costs for her business.

Now that they’re gone, what she’s looking for is clarity.

“I want something stable so we can have better planning what to do. Last year we talked about 54% and 100% and 120%. We don’t know what to do at that time,” she said.

The reciprocal tariffs represent about 70% of the global tariffs the president has imposed.

Last year, we spoke with fellow San Francisco business owner Kevin Teng about what they would mean for his K-Pop store.

We caught up with him again on Friday.

“In the past ten months it’s around $17,000 or $18,000 in tariffs that we paid,” said Teng.

With the Supreme Court’s ruling, many businesses are now calling for the tariff money they paid to be reimbursed to them from the federal government.

A task Teng knows will not be easy to achieve.

“Because if you passed on the costs to the customers, shouldn’t the people of America be getting that refund as well. So it’s really complicated. I don’t know how we’re going to go about it. Maybe a tax credit would be nice,” he said.

President Trump has promised to impose a new set of 10% tariffs for countries across the globe starting Tuesday.

A move, Harrison says, is likely aimed at preserving one of Trump’s primary aspirations.

“One of the goals is to bring manufacturing back to the US and that requires long term planning,” she said.

Since April, the tariffs have collected more than $142 billion in revenue according to Yale Budget Lab.