AKRON, Ohio — Last year, President Donald Trump imposed reciprocal or matching tariffs on goods from 90 countries. Now, he is imposing a 50% tariff on numerous items from Canada. Some experts believe those tariffs could have a big impact on small and local businesses.

Erin Leslie owns Paper Mill Studio in Akron. She creates event invitations and sells a variety of things, including stationery.

“Our busiest hands on deck, all hands-on deck season two is also pretty much April, now through into September, October,” said Erin Leslie, the owner of Paper Mill Studio.

Leslie imports her stock from all over the world, including Canada. She sells items like journals and greeting cards.

“I’m worried that it’ll make people apprehensive about coming out and shopping,” said Leslie. “Maybe spending less money overall, just since there’s so much uncertainty about what products will be affected and when.”

Earlier this summer, President Trump signed multiple proclamations putting an additional 50% tariff on dozens of items coming into the U.S. from Canada, including cars, dairy, alcohol, paper products and dozens of other items.

This is in response to what President Trump calls Canada’s discriminatory treatment of U.S. commerce. The White House said the Tariff Act of 1930 gives the president the authority to impose the tax.

“It’s a way to try to find a potentially legal way to implement tariffs without going through the formal process and going through congress who hold the purse strings,” said Economics Professor, Jonathan Ernest from the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University

Jonathan Ernest is an economics professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and has more than a decade of teaching economics. He said that when tariffs are imposed; it is a lot of uncertainty around them, including how long they will last.

“Not only might these tariffs go in place but also that there’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding them, whether or not these tariffs will stay in place, whether or not they’ll be raised or lowered, whether or not businesses should try to readjust their supply,” said Ernest.

Leslie said she only imports a small percentage of her stock from Canada, but some of her products from other countries have Canadian ties.

“Other vendors we shop from could be getting their raw materials from Canada,” said Leslie. “So, they’ll be paying an increased cost and then it’ll trickle down to us as that increase costs for us to buy it even wholesale.”

Ernest said tariffs impact small and large businesses and consumers, especially when businesses are hit by multiple tariffs.

“Navigating uncharted waters, you never know what the future holds with the tariffs,” said Leslie.

Leslie has been running her business for over 10 years, said she’s going to continue to serve her customers the best products even if she has to change the countries she shops from.

The increased Canadian tariffs are expected to start on August 19th.