SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court ruled today that many of President Trump's tariffs are unconstitutional.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The Supreme Court's ruling on tariffs is deeply disappointing.
DETROW: At a press conference after the ruling, Trump slammed the court's decision and vowed to forge ahead with his tariff policy.
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TRUMP: Other alternatives will now be used to replace the ones that the court incorrectly rejected.
DETROW: It was nearly a year ago when Trump announced, quote, "Liberation Day."
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TRUMP: The day American industry was reborn, the day America's destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again.
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DETROW: Trump's plan slapped high tariffs on goods from countries around the world, including France, and that hurt the New York-based wine importer VOS Selections. The company is one of several plaintiffs who challenged the Trump administration in court, arguing Trump lacked the ability to impose those sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA. Victor Schwartz is the founder of VOS Selections and joins me now. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
VICTOR SCHWARTZ: Great to be here. Thank you, Scott.
DETROW: What was your reaction to the decision?
SCHWARTZ: Oh, you can imagine. It was - kind of - I expected to win, but still actually having the win, it was out of body.
DETROW: Yeah.
SCHWARTZ: It was incredible. It was just incredible.
DETROW: Give this a sense of what the last year has been like for you as you've navigated these ever-shifting tariffs. Like, walk through one or two examples of just how you had to constantly change your business practices.
SCHWARTZ: Having a year like 2025 was like no other. And we've seen all kinds of ups and downs. You know, the tariffs changed so many times. We had to deal with so many different shipping issues. We had to go through and change our entire price book - many hundreds of items - four times since April - that gives you an idea - and trying to stay ahead. And then trying to explain things to our customers what was going on. And there was so much misinformation out there on the part of the administration, one of which was, don't worry about it. Foreign entities are going to be paying these tariffs. A complete untruth - one hundred percent untruth. I think a lot of the business reports that have come out lately from the Fed in New York and from Goldman Sachs have put that to a lie.
So there's been so much communication challenges, so many financial challenges, finding the money to pay the tariffs. It put a big hole in our cash flow. When you have to come up with that kind of money, you know, for us, it's like, in the six-figure range, where's that money going to come from? I can't go to the bond market and raise money like a large corporation. So it's been an existential threat.
DETROW: The president lost his authority to use IEEPA going forward.
SCHWARTZ: Correct.
DETROW: That had been the main tool of this administration, but President Trump is reacting to this ruling, making it clear he is going to continue...
SCHWARTZ: Sure.
DETROW: ...Tariffs in other ways. What do you think that means for your business at this point in time going forward?
SCHWARTZ: I think there are a lot of unknowns. So right now, I can't change the way I'm operating. I don't think any prudent business would be doing that. We do - we would like to think that the gross tariffs are going to be - are going to come to an end and that, in fact, they will have to be done in a legal way, which would be a much more focused way, a much more limited way, a much more specific way. And that would be very different from this global tariff imposition that we've seen. But we have a lot to learn. You know, we're really almost at the beginning of this, not at the end of this process.
DETROW: Is there any world where you think you get those six figures in tariff payments back?
SCHWARTZ: Absolutely. Because I know the way we pay, it's the same way we pay our customs and duties on every shipment. We're already paying plenty for customs and duties. It's a digital transfer of funds. They know exactly how much that my company has paid in tariffs. There's no reason they can't just look on their digital ledger and return those funds to us. Look, just for us to have the ability to go forward, even if that money is lost, even if it's spilled milk, we will all, all of us - I mean, everyone in my industry and probably all small businesses - just to have the ability to move forward without tariffs, that would be a major, major victory and a major relief.
DETROW: Victor, I have to ask - you just won a big victory at the Supreme Court. You're in the imports business. What are you drinking tonight?
SCHWARTZ: I think the best thing to drink is something from France, something with some age. I have a wonderful family that I've been working with for multiple generations, father and now the daughter. And an old bottle of Chateauneuf-du-Pape from Domaine du Banneret I think would really hit the spot.
DETROW: Let us know how it is.
SCHWARTZ: (Laughter) OK. I will.
DETROW: That's Victor Schwartz, founder of the wine importer VOS Selections. Thanks so much for talking to us.
SCHWARTZ: My pleasure. Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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