Small businesses across the U.S. are juggling a carousel of ever-changing tariffs. For Todd Adams, president of Sanitube, a stainless-steel tubing supplier for food manufacturers in the U.S., it’s steel and Chinese imports.

The 25% tax on steel is miniscule compared to minimum 145% tariff on Chinese goods. And while Adams feels fortunate his stainless steel tubes are taxed separately from the raw materials and other goods he buys from China, the ever-growing tax on imports is already pinching his wallet.

Adams told “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal that he has halted expansion projects and begun warning customers that prices will rise as he plans for the uncertain future ahead.

Below is an edited transcript of their conversation.

Kai Ryssdal: Last we heard from you, which I just looked it up, was the 12th of March, which is obviously before the tariff stuff has been going on, and you were, I mean, you were deeply upset back then, and I guess I wonder how you're feeling now.

Todd Adams: Yeah, well, a lot of what we were sort of discussing that might occur, has occurred. Fortunately, you know, in my industry — the steel industry — we're in a separate, as the administration calls it, a separate bucket, so we're not subject to the escalating reciprocal tariffs. However, some products that we have manufactured abroad, such as, you know, it's an ancillary product, like gaskets, they are subject to the reciprocal tariffs. But interestingly enough, with everything going on, we've tried to refocus some of our manufacturing here in Florida. And you know, we're in the process of buying materials for manufacturing. Those have to be imported, and the price of those materials has skyrocketed, so there's no way around it. We're going to be looking at a much higher end cost of our products going forward.

Ryssdal: And also, by the way, you're gonna have to have some cash to pay for those imported products, right? So you got a cash flow problem now too.

Adams: Absolutely, and that's my biggest concern right now. We're being very conservative in what we order from overseas, whether it's finished product or, you know, raw materials for manufacturing, because we don't know what our landed cost is going to be, and it seems to change on a daily basis.

Ryssdal: How does chaos as a business model strike you then, Todd? It seems challenging.

Adams: It is challenging, and it's just forced us to sort of dig ourselves into a trench. And we're not focused on growth initiatives or other exciting things we had planned for this year. We're in sort of a survival mode. We're hoarding cash, and, you know, prepared for the worst.

Ryssdal: So I heard you talking to Nick, the producer of this segment, before I actually jumped on the line, and I won't name any names here, but you're going to a food industry trade show thing in the next day or two. What is your message to your customers going to be?

Adams: Our message to our customers is that we are trying to have as much material on hand as possible. We're trying to manage our costs, but, you know, there will be increases. I think the two major threats that we're facing are higher, much higher, costs and availability of materials. Those are the two factors. So, I know some of our competitors, you know, have cut back on their on their purchasing, and I don't blame them for that, but that could lead to a shortage down the road, and that may very well still occur.

Ryssdal: As you sort of alluded to earlier, tariff policy changes on a dime. This weekend, the President came out, well I guess it was Friday, he came out with exceptions for cell phones and electronics, and then there's news coming on semiconductors, which is not you. But the bigger question is, do you have any hope of getting any exclusions or exemptions for the products you need?

Adams: Well, I am hopeful that, you know, their common sense will prevail. I mean, we're providing an essential industry — the food manufacturing industry. But I really hate to say that any industry is not essential. It exists because there is a need for it. Now, we saw in the first administration there were some exemptions that were granted for specific companies. And I really don't want to go down that road again, it was very unfair. It was somewhat political. It was somewhat random as to who got the exemptions. And there was already, I saw an article last week, there was some talk about possibly extending exemptions for specific companies, not industries, but companies, and that's obviously going to go to, you know, friends and family, so to speak. And you know who's going to get left paying the bill, small business. And I feel the overarching theme to all of this is small businesses are really getting killed. We're the ones bearing the brunt of this trade war.

Ryssdal: I appreciate the delicacy of this question, so I'll let you dodge it, I suppose, if you feel like it. But how long can you keep going if this all continues to be the case?

Adams: We can keep going as long as the market can bear the price increases that we'll have to pass on. We have positioned ourselves in a way such that we have enough cash available to bring in all the material we have on order. Now, if tariffs were just to escalate to some level, that's unheard of, which arguably we’re already there, you know, at some point we would break, but I think the entire economy would break before we would break. And we saw that when there was that 90-day pause instituted last week.