Trump’s Tariffs Leave Gadget Makers in Crisis
For Austere founder Deena Ghazarian, tariffs on products from China as well as Mexico have put her business in peril.
Austere, based in Wilsonville, Oregon, south of Portland, makes cable, cleaning, and surge-protected power products. The 12-person company, founded in 2018, previously moved about half of its operations to Taiwan and Vietnam from China and was in talks to shift production to Mexico. Those discussions stalled in November.
Depending on the item, up to 50% of Ghazarian’s components come from China. Half of her products are still made there, while the rest are manufactured in Taiwan and Vietnam. For her cleaning product solution, which is the most reliant on China, she estimates it would take over a year to move production to Thailand.