REPORT. Its simply chaos: In the United States, a chocolate factory seeks to recover customs duties it should not have paid.

This is the downside of the ultra-protectionist trade policy of the United States. Last February, the Supreme Court ruled the massive tariffs imposed by the Donald Trump administration on various imported products illegal. The federal government must now reimburse around $166 billion to American companies. However, while large companies have the means to navigate this administrative chaos, for small business owners, it’s a different story. In Georgia, one of the states most severely affected, a “small” entrepreneur, a chocolatier from Atlanta, is in the frontline.

To import raw materials, Matt Weyandt has to collaborate with other small manufacturers like himself. Sugar comes from Brazil, cocoa from small cooperatives in Tanzania, Uganda, Peru, Nicaragua. When these tariffs were added to the rising costs of raw materials, his finances faltered. “Just for the cocoa, we probably paid between $15,000 and $20,000 in tariffs last year,” he estimates.

While the prospect of reimbursement seems promising on paper, he lacks the human resources to pursue it. “We don’t have armies of lawyers or staff to handle the paperwork and do everything necessary to try to obtain refunds,” explains the chocolatier. “I have no illusions. I have no idea how long this will take, or even the exact nature of the procedure.”

“There is a lot of uncertainty and confusion about how the system works and the refund procedures.”

An Atlanta chocolatier

– franceinfo

With this, it’s impossible to plan for investments. A machine to package the bars, for example? Impossible, they are produced in Europe and therefore too expensive. “It’s simply chaos,” says Matt Weyandt. “There is a lot of uncertainty about the applicable duty rate in each country and on each product. It doesn’t make decisions easier. I think almost all businesses are facing this. We work with many local food companies, coffee roasters. They are obviously facing the same kind of situation.”

“Everyone suffers,” says the chocolatier. The culprit, he says, is the head of state, Donald Trump. “I don’t think his policy has helped small businesses at all. He may have helped a few major oil companies, AI giants, and things like that.” Let’s not talk about tariffs, concludes Matt, but taxes on American SMEs.