Tariffs Are a Business Savior to Some, Inflation Trigger for Others

At the Kitchen & Bath Industry Show in Las Vegas in 2005, an American kitchen cabinet maker was faced with unfair Chinese competition face-to-face for the first time. A Chinese man was selling cabinets using the American business owner’s marketing brochure. Paul Wellborn, the owner of Wellborn Cabinet, recognized the Chinese man—he had visited Wellborn’s factory in Alabama not long prior, posing as a prospective customer. Wellborn confronted the competitor. “He just laughed and said: ‘We sell Gucci purses. We make all this stuff, and nobody can do anything about it,’” Wellborn recalled. Wellborn said this encounter provided him an “incentive” to “fight for what’s right.” He paid about $14,000 in legal fees to ensure the man would stop using Wellborn brochures. Then, almost 15 years later, when he realized that his business was at risk due to Chinese cabinet dumping, he sought tariffs for self-protection....