After fighting in the Vietnam War, Richard May returned to America and enrolled in business school, where an economics class made a big impression on him.

越战结束后，理查德·梅回到美国，进入商学院深造，其中一门经济学课程给他留下了深刻印象。

He learned about the British economist David Ricardo’s 19th-century theory of comparative advantage, the idea that a nation should specialize in what it does best and trade with others for everything else. He started his own business in 1990, designing medical treatment beds and garage doors in the United States. Applying Ricardo’s ideas, Mr. May used manufacturers in Asia to turn his blueprints into products.

他学习了英国经济学家大卫·李嘉图在19世纪提出的比较优势理论——一个国家应专注于自己最擅长的领域，并通过贸易从其他国家获取所需商品。1990年，他在美国创业，成立了一家设计医疗护理床和车库门的公司。作为对李嘉图理论的实践，他将设计图纸交由亚洲的制造商加工成成品。

This model worked well for Mr. May’s company, MFG Direct USA, for the better part of 35 years. But this year, amid President Trump’s barrage of tariffs, he feared that his company might not survive another 60 days. To bring his garage doors into America from China, he now had to pay an 83 percent tax to the U.S. government, a compilation of four different existing and new tariffs.

此后35年的大部分时间里，这种模式让他的公司MFG Direct USA稳健发展。但今年在特朗普总统一系列关税的冲击下，他担心公司没法再撑60天。如今从中国进口车库门需向美国政府支付83%的关税，其中包括四种不同的新旧税项。

Mr. May, 78, said he went into “survival mode.” He laid off staff and cut expenses drastically. His team worked 12 hours a day trying to find new customers. He made it through the shock, but the business is facing big challenges.

现年78岁的梅称自己转入了“求生模式”。他裁员、大幅削减开支。团队每天工作12个小时，拼命寻找新客户。虽然他挺过了最初的冲击，但企业仍面临巨大挑战。

“We’re hanging on by a thread,” he said. “We’ve been doing everything possible. We’re working harder just to stay in business.”

“我们现在几乎是苟延残喘。”他说，“大家已经拼尽全力，只是为了维持公司生存。”

Just over six months into Mr. Trump’s campaign to rebalance global trade, some American small businesses are already on the brink. Others have chosen to throw in the towel. Last week, the United States and China agreed to extend, by another 90 days, a pause on tariffs that would have soared to a catastrophic 145 percent, averting a worst-case scenario — a complete halt of trade between the world’s two largest economies.

特朗普发起全球贸易再平衡行动仅仅六个多月后，一些美国小企业已经濒临破产。还有一些干脆选择放弃。上周，美中双方同意将暂停加征关税的期限延长90天（原定税率将飙升至灾难性的145%），避免了两大经济体间贸易完全停滞的最坏局面。

广州的一家服装市场。尽管暂停征收更高关税，美国对来自中国的商品征收的最低关税仍有30%。

But the pause has done nothing for many American small-business owners paying the tariffs it left in place, such as a minimum 30 percent duty for goods from China or a 50 percent import tax on products made from foreign steel and aluminum. The average effective U.S. tariff rate soared to 18.6 percent in early August, the highest level in more than 90 years, from 2.5 percent when Mr. Trump took office in January, according to the Budget Lab at Yale, a research center.

但对许多仍需支付现有关税的美国小企业主而言（如中国商品至少30%的关税或外国钢铝制品50%的进口税），暂停加税并无实质帮助。耶鲁大学预算实验室数据显示，美国的平均实际关税率已从2017年1月特朗普就职时的2.5%飙升至8月初的18.6%，创90多年来的新高。

Many businesses stockpiled key supplies and components ahead of the tariffs, but the full effect of the import taxes is becoming more apparent as those reserves dwindle, dealing a final blow to some companies already struggling with other challenges.

许多企业在关税生效前囤积了大量关键原材料和零部件，但随着库存逐渐耗尽，关税的全面冲击逐渐显现，给一些本就艰难求生的公司带来致命打击。

Howard Miller, a family-owned manufacturer of handcrafted clocks and home furniture based in Zeeland, Mich., said last month that it planned to shut down operations next year after 99 years in business. The company, which employs nearly 200 people at factories in Michigan and North Carolina, said in a statement that it was already grappling with a soft housing market when tariffs hit supply chains and “sparked recession fears.”

总部位于密歇根州齐兰的家族企业霍华德·米勒是一家手工钟表和家具制造商。上个月，该公司宣布计划在明年停产，结束99年的经营历史。在声明中，这家在密歇根和北卡罗来纳州的工厂雇用了近200名员工的公司表示，他们本已因为房市低迷而举步维艰，而关税冲击供应链并“引发经济衰退担忧”，令其再也无法维持。

“Our business has been directly impacted by tariffs that have increased the cost of essential components unavailable domestically and driven specialty suppliers out of business, making it unsustainable for us to continue our operations,” said Howard J. Miller, the company’s chief executive and grandson of its founder.

公司首席执行官、创始人之孙霍华德·米勒表示：“我们的业务直接受到关税的冲击，这些关税提高了国内无法采购的关键零部件的成本，同时也让专业供应商破产，导致我们的经营无法持续。”

In July, Jennifer Bergman, 58, closed West Side Kids, a toy store in New York City founded by her mother 44 years ago. She said that operating a toy shop in the age of Amazon was already difficult, but that the tariffs made it impossible to go on. The prices for everything from her best-selling scooters to inexpensive knickknacks went up, and she spent most of her days dealing with price increases. She also said she found that people were more hesitant to spend because they feared the effect of tariffs on the economy.

58岁的珍妮弗·伯格曼于7月关闭了母亲44年前在纽约创办的玩具店——西区儿童。她说，在亚马逊时代经营玩具店本已艰难，关税则是让情况雪上加霜。从畅销的滑板车到廉价小饰品的全面涨价使她大部分时间在疲于应对价格上涨，她还发现，消费者因担忧关税对经济的影响而在消费上变得更为谨慎。

As Ms. Bergman looked at her finances in June, she realized that she would struggle to make rent in July. She said sales representatives from toy brands had told her that other shops were struggling, too.

6月核算账目时，伯格曼发现到了7月她将无力支付房租了。玩具品牌的销售代表告诉她，其他店铺同样难以为继。

“They think I’m the first to fall, but that others are going to follow,” Ms. Bergman said.

“他们认为我是第一个倒下的，”伯格曼说，“但绝不会是最后一个。”

Sari Wiaz, owner of Baby Paper, which makes paper-like toys, said the tariffs on her products imported from China had been “devastating.” Her costs are up 25 percent, and the uncertainty is making it hard to plan for the future. Ms. Wiaz, 67, noted a stark contrast to the support that communities and the government had provided to small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, a period that also caused local business to collapse.

Baby Paper是一个仿纸玩具品牌，老板萨里·威亚兹称，对中国进口商品征收的关税具有“毁灭性”。她的成本上涨了25%，加之未来不确定性，使得企业难以做规划。67岁的威亚兹指出，与新冠疫情时期政府和社区对小企业的支持相比（当时疫情也曾导致本土企业倒闭），现在的情况是天壤之别。

In a networking group for small manufacturers, she said, she noticed that many otherwise scrappy business owners were “starting to give up.”

她说，在一个小型制造商的社交群里，她注意到许多原本很有干劲的企业主正“开始放弃”。

Holly Eve, 38, is starting to face the reality that she may have to shut her California-based company, Madame Lemy, a producer of all-natural powder deodorant and shampoo. She started the business nine years ago, after struggling to find an effective, natural alternative to conventional deodorants. At the outset, she made the products in her kitchen.

38岁的霍莉·伊芙开始面对现实：她可能不得不关闭自己在加州创办的全天然祛臭粉与洗发水公司Madame Lemy。九年前，她因找不到有效的天然除臭用品而创业，起初在自家厨房里制作产品。

Madame Lemy的美国代工企业依赖外国供应商，它们告诉伊芙，费用将不得不提高200%。

The business experienced rapid growth during the pandemic, as online shoppers flocked to her products, depleting her inventory. Mrs. Eve took out a small-business loan to expand, but her company hit a lull when online advertisements became more expensive and less effective. Her optimism heading into this year eroded quickly when the tariffs hit.

在疫情期间，她的公司迎来快速增长，网购需求推高销量，库存告罄。伊芙申请了小企业贷款扩张业务，但之后因网络广告越来越贵、效果越来越差，公司陷入低谷。今年初，本对前景充满乐观的她因关税冲击而彻底失望。

Her American contract manufacturers told her that they would have to charge her 60 to 200 percent more, depending on the item, because they procure the necessary components to assemble her products from abroad. In addition, the tariff on importing boxes and other packaging she buys from China has also risen sharply. She said she was struggling to cover her loan payments.

她在美国的代工厂告诉她，由于原料都来自海外，他们必须将收费提高60%到200%不等。此外，从中国进口的纸盒和其他包装的关税也大幅上升。她说，她已难以偿还贷款。

“This just seems like a problem too large to solve,” Mrs. Eve said. “It has completely wrecked my mental health.”

“这问题简直大到无解。”伊芙说，“彻底摧毁了我的心理健康。”

She felt she had so much of her identity tied up in the company — the business had sustained her through a painful divorce and devastating car accident — that the looming prospect of its failure was almost too much to handle.

她将自我价值完全寄托在这个公司身上——它曾经支撑她度过离婚之痛和严重车祸，如今濒临破产的阴影让她几乎无法承受。

She said she had found comfort in the support of her family. Her father, Stephen R. Landfield, who voted for President Trump, wrote a letter to the White House on her behalf explaining that her business will not survive the tariffs.

她说，家人的支持给了她安慰。她的父亲斯蒂芬·兰菲尔德曾投票支持特朗普，他代表女儿写信给白宫，解释说她的公司将无法在这些关税下存活。

“Small businesses are the backbone of our country, yet these tariffs unfairly target them. Many will have no choice but to close their doors,” Mr. Landfield wrote. “I urge you to reconsider this policy so that American entrepreneurs and small-business owners like my daughter can continue contributing to our economy without being crushed by costs beyond their control.”

“小企业是国家的支柱，但关税政策对它们不公。许多企业将别无选择，只能关门停业，”兰菲尔德写道。“我恳请你们重新审视这项政策，让像我女儿这样的美国企业家和小企业主能够继续为我们的经济做出贡献，而不是被这些超出他们掌控的成本压垮。”