Trump's tariffs impacting Dallas food businesses

A Chinese restaurant owner in Dallas says he is doing all he can to avoid raising prices despite tariff concerns. The tariffs bring a shrinking profit margin and an increase in worry about what additional planned tariffs might mean for business.

A lot of supplies used in the food industry come from China or other places in Southeast Asia.

Café Hunan on SMU Boulevard serves traditional Chinese food with original Chinese products such as some sauces and vegetables only produced in China.

Owner Mark Carey is concerned that climbing tariffs could really make things tight in the food service industry. 

Not just food products but the packaging that everyone uses. The majority of it is not produced in this country. Most packaging used in all restaurants comes from China.

This impacts not only what comes from China, but also Mexico. Stuff that you just can't get in America.

What they're saying:

Carey and others in the restaurant business are hoping the tariff talks are tamped down, and that countries can negotiate amenable solutions.

"It’s going to just exponentially raise the prices on every dish. There's no two ways about it if that happens," said Carey. "Because a lot of the produce during the off-season all comes from Mexico, a large part of it so, hopefully, they'll get something worked out with the Mexican tariff fees. I think that's something that they'll get worked out, but they have to because we're not growing a lot of that product that we use in the wintertime in this state, in this country here."

While Carey’s industry understands the trade imbalance...they have concerns about their bottom line.

I understand you got to crack an egg to make an omelet, right? So I get that, but also, at the same time, you have got to be careful with industries that really don't have the margins. I understand steel. There's competition there between our countries and other countries. I get all that but when it comes down to food products, our margins are so small that when you start affecting those prices, it's either going to put people out of business or it's going to get so expensive that people just aren't going to eat out anymore," said Carey.

What's next:

While the treasury secretary says he expects a de-escalation in the tariff tug-of-war with China. He also said talks between the world's two largest economies had yet to formally start. Restaurant owners like Mark Carey at Café Hunan are hoping they will start and come to a good end soon.