MOORHEAD — Local businesses continue to struggle with uncertainty caused by tariffs, according to the owner of one Moorhead brewery.
Sean Syverson, owner of Swing Barrel Brewing Company, talked about the ongoing unpredictability businesses are facing around tariffs on imported goods and other federal policies during a press conference with U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., on Monday morning, Feb. 16.
“What we need in order to survive as a small business is stability and a little bit of predictability,” Syverson said. “When we don’t have those things, it makes it a lot harder for us to make good, solid business decisions.”
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
Last April, Klobuchar visited Moorhead for a
similar conversation about tariffs
with the brewery owner and a local soybean farmer. Since the beginning of his second term, President Donald Trump has implemented tariffs on various imports from certain foreign countries, including Canada.
Klobuchar gave an update on efforts to repeal the tariffs on Canadian imports. Last week, the U.S. House passed a bill to rescind the tariffs on Canada. The vote was split 219-211, with six Republicans joining most Democrats in voting to pass the resolution. Klobuchar, with Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., led a similar bill in the Senate last year.
“The issue is the president would most likely veto it at this point, but the fact that there’s that kind of political support to pass a bill like that is significant, and it will bode well for the future if we end up having to fight this through Congress,” Klobuchar said.
At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court is considering a case challenging the use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose the tariffs.
“If they just uphold the tariffs and allow them to keep in place, then Congress becomes even more critical to getting rid of the tariffs,” Klobuchar said.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
If the tariffs are overturned, the court will have to decide if the action is retroactive or will just affect trade moving forward, she said.
Canada is Minnesota’s top trading partner, Klobuchar said. She listed other industries negatively affected by tariffs, including agriculture, construction and manufacturing.
Along with tariffs, many Minnesota breweries could be affected by a new
set to go into effect near the end of the year. A bill to end the government shutdown last year included the provision that will ban most intoxicating hemp-derived products.
That change endangers hemp-derived THC products that many Minnesota breweries make or sell, including Swing Barrel.
“It’s not a competition, it just becomes another avenue and another option for our customers,” Syverson said. “When we don’t have that, we have to scale back. Things are a little less fun in the taproom.”
Klobuchar said she and Paul introduced a bill to delay the ban so federal regulations on intoxicating hemp products can be developed. Hemp is a crop grown in the Midwest, Klobuchar said.
“We have a lot of hemp growers in Minnesota, so it particularly hurts the Midwest, but also an industry that is growing,” Klobuchar said of the ban.
Klobuchar is
running for Minnesota governor
this year.
Alyssa Goelzer / The Forum
