Copyright ABC News
When Victor Schwartz abandoned the world of banking in the 1980s for the vineyards of France, his unorthodox career choice unknowingly put him on a collision course with President Donald Trump and the signature issue of his second administration. Schwartz, the founder of a wine and liquor importing business in New York, is now the lead plaintiff suing President Donald Trump over his sweeping global tariffs -- a case whose outcome could not only roil the global economy but also, he argues, destroy Schwartz’s family business. "I'm worried about my business, and I'm worried about a lot of other businesses in this country," Schwartz told ABC News. "It's a very, very tight, tight situation, and you're going to see companies go out of business over this. It's a terrible, terrible burden." Ahead of Wednesday’s Supreme Court oral argument, Schwartz projected confidence about the strength of his case. Two lower courts have ruled in favor of Schwartz and four other businesses that worked together to challenge the tariffs. Their case is being heard alongside a case brought by another small business as well as a coalition of state attorneys g eneral. "I feel great for a number of reasons,” he said. "We’ve got a great case." However, Schwartz acknowledged that the ongoing national conversation about tariffs, led by Trump, has been frustrating to witness. Trump has argued that tariffs will raise hundreds of billions from foreign companies and rejuvenate the American economy. "I cannot say this enough times, foreign entities are not paying the tariffs. American companies are paying the tariffs. I am paying the tariffs, and soon consumers will be seeing the cost increases," he said. "They're gloating all over, all the billions of dollars that they're collecting, they think it's great. What they don't say is they're collecting it from American businesses. It's an incredible burden, and especially a credible burden, on small businesses." With the wine and spirits importing already a small-margin business, Schwartz said that the fluctuating cost of tariffs -- combined with the weakening of the U.S. dollar and the shift away from alcohol drinking -- has significantly hurt his bottom line. The nature of the alcohol business in the New York tri-state area, he added, makes it even harder to adjust to the tariffs. "We can't just change our prices if we feel like it," he said. "We have to post our prices in New York and New Jersey over a month ahead of time, and that means we say what everybody pays for a case of wine, what the discounts are if you buy three cases of wine or 10 cases of wine, we can't just change that, because some underlying factor changes." Schwartz said he’s grateful for the chance to challenge the tariffs in court, According to Jeffrey Schwab, Senior Counsel and Interim Director of Litigation at the Liberty Justice Center, Schwartz and the other small business owners were selected after speaking with approximately 50 businesses owners that were concerned about the tariffs. "I think we ended up with five that we thought would be good plaintiffs, that they wanted to be plaintiffs," he said. "They understood the magnitude of the case, the fact that we would be suing the President of the United States, that kind of thing." As he prepared to hear the Supreme Court arguments on Wednesday, Schwartz said he couldn’t be more aware of the stakes of going up against the President in a case that could determine the long-term viability of his business. "Going up against the executive branch, going up against Trump, you know, they take no prisoners. There's a lot at stake," he said.
