Portland coffee company seeks $370K in refunds from President Donald Trump’s tariffs. It’s among small businesses unsure if refunds will arrive

President Donald Trump’s tariffs have had a colossal impact on Portland Coffee Roasters: The four-cafe company that also sells wholesale beans to other coffee shops and restaurants says it paid $370,000 in tariffs in 2025.

So like many companies across Oregon and the U.S., co-owner Mark Stell says he wants his money back.

That wish has become a real — albeit uncertain — possibility, as tens of thousands of businesses so far have submitted claims through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s new tariffs refund portal, which opened this week.

“I am not naive in thinking it’s a slam dunk and we’re going to get our money back,” said Stell, whose company faced tariffs between 10% and 50% on coffee beans, before Trump lifted the tariff late last year because the beans can’t be grown in mass quantities in the U.S.

Even so, Stell said, “for a small mom-and-pop company like we are, it was a lot of money. And basically it just ate through our reserves, to where now we’re looking at … a line of credit, which costs us even more money.”

The Oregonian/OregonLive spoke to several locally owned Portland-area businesses that said they spent anywhere from an estimated $10,000 to hundreds of thousands in tariffs since early 2025, when Trump announced he was instituting new duties and raising existing ones. Many businesses say they’re scrambling to get their paperwork in order to stake their claim on $166 billion in tariffs collected from importers.

The portal was ordered into being by a federal judge, after the U.S. Supreme Court in February ruled Trump’s tariffs illegal.

The federal government has promised refunds within 60 to 90 days, though so much is still up in the air. Will the available money run out? And will Trump find a way to block the refunds? The president has said he adamantly opposes the Supreme Court’s ruling and the granting of refunds. Tuesday, he said it’d be “brilliant” if companies don’t apply for the refunds and he’ll “remember” those who don’t.

President Donald Trump showed off a chart of new tariffs on April 2, 2025. Though the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated them in February 2026, Trump has instituted new, temporary tariffs in their place. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)AP

But Hood River Distillers, like many businesses, says it needs the money. Chief Financial Officer Erica Mitchell told The Oregonian/OregonLive that stiff tariff fees contributed to an unprofitable year in 2025. That’s because the company was unable to pass along its added tariff costs to customers of its line of spirits, which ranges from vodka to brandy.

“It’s more loss for us because we’re so small in the market, we can’t set price,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said she visited the federal online portal Tuesday to create an account, the first step in getting refunded. But she said the company isn’t eligible to apply for refunds for most of the imported supplies it bought — and paid tariffs on — because it didn’t directly import them. A supplier did.

Mitchell thinks it’s unlikely that the suppliers will forward the refunds they receive to Hood River Distillers.

“For us, it is a bummer,” Mitchell said. “I just feel like we’re never going to see that money. It’s gone.”

Adding to their worries, some small businesses in Oregon and across the nation have reported problems navigating the portal, noting that they’ve received error messages.

“Impossible to get logged on,” said Kyle Ranson, owner of Showers Pass cycling clothing store in Southeast Portland, in a text Wednesday to The Oregonian/OregonLive.

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and U.S. Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat from Oregon’s 5th Congressional District, are each sponsoring bills to automatically refund businesses within 30 to 90 days. The goal is to streamline a complicated process for smaller businesses, which often don’t have the same resources and know-how as large ones that are applying for tariff refunds.

In a speech on the Senate floor this week, Wyden described the refund portal as “just more bureaucratic red tape to make it harder for Americans to get their money back.” He added: “It’s clear as Crater Lake that Oregonians can’t rely on this administration to return their money. So Congress needs to step up.”

Stacee Wion, owner of SpielWerk Toys in North Portland, said she has no plans to make a claim. Her reason is the same as many other small business owners: She didn’t directly import the items, even though line items on her invoices clearly state that tariffs were tacked onto her overall shipment price.

Stacee Wion, owner of SpielWerk Toys on North Williams Avenue in Portland. April 1, 2026Beth Nakamura

She estimates that Trump’s tariffs cost her between $20,000 and $30,000.

“I’m not even going to look at it,” Wion said of the portal. “I just can’t.” For one, she said she faces a huge logistical hurdle: She lacks the shipping codes that would be necessary to submit her claim.

Although major shipping companies — including FedEx, UPS and DHL — have already submitted refund claims and pledged to refund customers, Wion isn’t holding out hope that the money will actually reach her.

“It would be,” she said, “a lot of administrative work on their side.”

At Southwest Portland’s Paloma Clothing, which sells women’s clothing made across the globe, co-owner Mike Roach said his store was forced to raise prices in 2025 because of tariffs. He said that made for one of the rockiest of the 50 years that have passed since he and his mother started the business.

An employee chats with a customer at Paloma Clothing in this file photo.Anna Marum

Though he said he’s relieved to see the Supreme Court’s ruling, he’s frustrated it came 10 ½ months after Trump announced his new and steeper tariffs. And that the portal is open for submissions only now.

“I really have a level of anger at the Supreme Court for stalling so long,” Roach said. “They waited almost a year and that was a year that really hurt small businesses — and big businesses, too.”

“It was a self-inflicted wound,” he added. “This is something our government did to us that it didn’t have to do.”