ICYMI: Nashua Ink Link Highlights Pappas’s Fight to Protect NH Small Businesses, Provide Tariff Relief

NASHUA, N.H. — In case you missed it, Nashua Ink Link recently highlighted how Congressman Chris Pappas is fighting to protect New Hampshire small businesses from the rising costs of President Trump’s reckless tariffs, including the threat of a 50% tariff on Canadian goods.

The proposed tariff, which has not yet taken effect, would be devastating for small businesses across the Granite State, many of which rely on Canadian goods and materials. Pappas is running for U.S. Senate to stand up for New Hampshire’s small businesses, which are the backbone of our economy. In Congress, Pappas sponsored the CANADA Act, which would exempt small businesses from tariffs on Canadian goods, and fought to pass the bill through the House. 

Read more below:

Nashua Ink Link: 50% tariffs on Canada paused, but New Hampshire small-business, consumer pain isn’t

By Maureen Milliken, 08/19/26

  • New tariffs on Canada targeting  a wide variety of goods was paused Tuesday night two hours before it was due to go into effect, prolonging the waiting game for New Hampshire consumers and small businesses that have already been rocked by higher costs related to tariffs over the past year and a half.
  • If the tariffs go into effect as proposed, New Hampshire would feel the impact in a variety of ways, both in building supplies and consumer goods, and in costs to small businesses for products and equipment. It wouldn’t be anything new, though – the state’s businesses have been navigating rising costs and inventory challenges related to tariffs since early 2025.
  • New Hampshire imports $1.9 billion goods from Canada annually, according to the Canadian Consulate General. Many of those goods are imported by small businesses that can’t get them at a good price, or at all, in the U.S.
  • Fuel oil, which accounts for 29% of the state’s imports from Canada would not be affected, nor would seafood, which is a big part of the 18% representing agricultural goods. 
  • But equipment and machinery (18%), forest products (9%), and other imports that would come under the tariffs are not only bought by consumers, but also imported by businesses to use as equipment or in their processes and packaging.
  • New Hampshire’s economy has already been hit by the tariff war with Canada that began in early 2025. 
  • […] 
  • While the proposed tariffs target only 5% of goods shipped into the U.S. from Canada, border states like New Hampshire, that consider Canada a major, if not their most important, trade partner, would feel an impact. 
  • Small businesses rely on goods and services from Canada that they can’t get in the U.S. Building trades and other timber-related industries frequently cross the border. Lumber that’s harvested in the U.S., but processed in Canada, then brought back is considered an import, for instance.
  • Small businesses don’t always have options as far as sources for products and equipment goes, or on making changes. They also don’t have the capital to absorb rising costs without passing some along to customers.
  • Tariffs have already led to lost revenue and jobs at small businesses, a May report from the Congressional Joint Economic Committee found.
  • Revenue at construction businesses with fewer than 10 employees decreased an estimated 18% between April 2025 and April 2026, the report found, and revenue at leisure and hospitality businesses with fewer than 10 decreased by an estimated 15.2%, manufacturing by 10.7% and retail by 9.4%. 
  • Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees lost 4.5 times more jobs in 2025 than they did during the pandemic, largely because of cost increases related to tariffs.
  • Amber Morgan, of Nashua, who owns Fortin Gage Flowers and Gifts, in a conversation with U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas last month, said that tariffs have already cost her thousands of dollars, including on things like planters, as well as flowers, about 15% of which she imports from Canada. In turn, she would have to raise prices if the tariffs take effect, and her customers would feel that impact.  
  • “Fortin Gage Flowers is a 95-year-old flower shop right here in the heart of downtown Nashua,” said Morgan, who is also a city alderman. “I’m a small business owner and in New Hampshire, small businesses are the largest employer in the whole state.”
  • She said that small businesses fight battles every day, but those involving tariffs and increased gas prices caused by the war in Iran “are ones we shouldn’t be fighting.”
  • […]
  • The rising costs of goods, services, and wages was the most common financial challenge reported by small businesses in 2025, according to the Fed’s Small Business Credit Survey, released in March. 
  • The report found that 40% of small businesses reported that increased costs associated with tariffs were a financial challenge, with 69% of retail and 62% of manufacturing businesses citing tariffs as their biggest financial challenge.
  • Some 48% of the businesses surveyed said they source at least some of their products, materials or equipment from outside the United States, and 14% said they did so for more than half of those items.
  • President Trump claimed the tariffs would bring U.S. manufacturing jobs back, but the U.S. lost between 30,000 to 100,000 manufacturing jobs last year, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In New Hampshire, manufacturing lost about 1,200 jobs in 225, the largest year-over-year loss of any industry in the state, according to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute. Manufacturing employment dropped from 68,800 in 2024 to 67,600 in 2025.
  • Pappas, a Democrat, has sponsored several bills in the House to help small businesses get some relief from tariffs, including, with fellow New Hampshire Rep. Maggie Goodlander,  the Canada Act, which would exempt small businesses from tariffs on Canadian goods.
  • The Canada Act passed in the House, 219–211, including yes votes from six Republicans, but hasn’t gained traction in the Senate and is opposed by Trump.
  • […]

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