Since President Donald Trump rolled out his sweeping tariffs policy last year, promising job growth, and forcing foreign countries to bear the cost, some officials and business leaders in Colorado have met the approach with skepticism and, often, criticism.
Last week, with the year anniversary on Thursday of what Trump dubbed “Liberation Day,” events were held to discuss the tariffs’ impact on the Colorado economy.
Gov. Jared Polis held a roundtable with a handful of small-business owners, manufacturers and industry leaders, alongside the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.
“It’s long been clear: Tariffs are a tax increase that raises costs, creates uncertainty, and makes it harder to grow and hire talent. While the courts have taken important steps to stop these unlawful policies, businesses are still dealing with the fallout,” Polis said.
Also, on a news call Wednesday, state fiscal officers, including Colorado State Treasurer Dave Young, called the tariffs’ impact on communities nationwide “devastating.”
“Trump’s tariffs are a self-inflicted crisis that represents economic devastation, not liberation for working families and businesses. Businesses need predictability to grow, but what they’re getting instead is tariff whiplash,” Young said.
“Policies are announced and they’re changed. They’re reversed, they’re escalated with little warning. That creates chaos for business owners trying to plan investments, hire staff or set prices,” Young said.
Not everyone, of course, is opposed to the tariffs.
The Steel Manufacturers Association, the largest steel association in America, for its recent decision to “strengthen tariffs” on imported steel, aluminum and copper.
“The Steel Manufacturers Association applauds the Trump Administration’s actions today to strengthen the Section 232 steel tariffs,” said SMA President and CEO Philip K. Bell on Thursday.
“By right-sizing the derivatives list and updating the valuation of steel-containing goods, these measures reinforce President Trump’s signature trade achievement, ensuring the tariffs remain precisely targeted to support the revitalization of the American steel industry without undermining broader economic goals.”
Peter Navarro, senior counselor for trade and manufacturing to Trump since January 2025, shared a White House post on X celebrating Trump’s Liberation Day, highlighting “real results, putting more money in the pockets of American workers.”
He also on the administration’s plans to impose a on patented pharmaceutical products and ingredients, saying the president is “bringing pharma jobs home, reducing reliance on foreign supply chains, strengthening national security and putting downward pressure on drug prices.”
However, for Chad Franke, president of the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union, tariffs have been all over the board.
“We don’t not support tariffs, but they need to be done in a thoughtful and methodical way,” he told The Post in October.
Trump invoked his authority under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 to impose the tariffs. Using IEEPA authority, Trump began by imposing a 10% tariff on all countries, followed by a year of frequently shifting tariff policies.
Young said tariffs in Colorado have risen sevenfold, increasing from about 3% to 21%, the highest level in more than a century. He said these high costs are rippling across industries from agriculture and construction to energy and aerospace, and even coffee roasters.
“A Denver retailer recently reported that tariffs cost his business $25,000 last fall alone and across the state, Colorado businesses paid $1.1 billion in tariffs in 2025,” Young said. “For a small business that is not a formula for a thriving future, it’s a recipe for ruin.”
The treasurers’ call coincided with the release of a new “Liberation Day Report” from nonprofit , which details the economic impact of tariffs in the past year. The report said American families have paid each in tariff costs and nearly 200,000 blue-collar jobs have been lost, including approximately 89,000 manufacturing jobs and nearly 124,000 transportation and warehousing jobs.
About 96% of the tariff burden was paid by U.S. consumers, foreign exporters absorbed 4%, the report says. The report also found that Trump’s tariffs hiked retail prices for domestic goods by nearly 5% on average, while economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2025.
For Nathan Peterson, founder and CEO of Vederra Modular in Colorado, the strain has been building steadily.
“Over the past year, tariffs have pushed our material costs up around 6–7%, but the bigger issue has been supply chain instability and inconsistent delivery times. To manage that, we’re carrying more inventory, which, in addition to the price increases, is requiring more capital costs and ultimately driving up the cost of housing in Colorado,” Peterson said.
New data from , a grassroots coalition comprised of over 1,100 small businesses that advocates against tariffs, revealed American businesses have paid $265 billion in overall presidential tariffs. Business leaders emphasized that even after the recent Supreme Court decision major portions of the tariffs, the impacts remain.
The federal government is working to return through a refund process requiring detailed claims and data submissions. A process expected to take months or longer to fully complete.
U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, alongside 18 of his Senate Democratic colleagues, last month to Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney S. Scott, demanding the administration to use existing records to automatically refund small businesses instead of forcing small businesses to opt-in.
The letter states the Trump administration’s proposed refund process, known as the Consolidated Administration and Processing of Entries system, creates unnecessary burdens for small businesses who are already struggling under tariffs.
“Small businesses should not have to do additional work to receive refunds on what amounted to illegal tariff payments,” the senators wrote in a news release last week.
“Every cent of illegal IEEPA tariffs must be returned. The only question is whether CBP will make that process as simple and equitable as possible, or whether it will implement a complicated and unfair system through which large corporations and Wall Street will benefit financially,” the senators wrote.
Hickenlooper, a former small-business owner and an outspoken opponent of Trump’s tariffs, recently introduced the , which would fully refund businesses that paid the administration’s tariffs, and the to exempt small businesses from the administration’s sweeping tariffs.
In 2025, Polis and state agencies to analyze the effects of tariffs across key industries, finding widespread cost increases, planning challenges, and market .
According to the OSPB’s , actual U.S. tariff revenue in 2025 was $287.1 billion on $3.44 trillion in U.S. imports, resulting in a U.S. effective tariff rate of 8.3 percent, which is a 219% increase in the effective tariff rate from 2024.
For Colorado, OSPB expects an effective tariff rate of 8.8% in 2026 and 7.7% in 2027, which is slightly below expectations of 9.% and 8.1% for the U.S. as a whole in 2026 and 2027 respectively.
The report also noted that small businesses have taken on an outsized burden of the tariff increases and lack the legal resources necessary to pursue refunds.
In response, the state is offering new and expanded resources through OEDIT and World Trade Center Denver, including a that provides regular tariff updates, one-on-one advising and specialized consulting for businesses.
