Tariffs.

Boxes in Italian-flag colors of green, white and blue line shelves at Grazia’s Italian Market in Bethlehem. Family-run, it opened in April at 2112 Schoenersville Road to bring, according to its colorful website description, “the best of Italy right to your table.”

Its authentic packaged goods and cheese, mostly imported, now are subject to a 15 percent customs levy, though the impact the delivered prices depends on what share is borne at each level of the supply chain: manufacturer, shipper and U.S. wholesaler.

“The costs are different every week,” said Mike Crivellaro, “and we don’t know until the deliveries come in.”

A generous share of Grazia’s offerings is fresh-made, such as “indulgent” Italian sweets and fresh-baked traditional breads.

This is unlike stock at Bethlehem’s longstanding Donegal Square, on Main Street, where Neville Gardiner, an owner, figures that fully 95 percent of his offerings are imported.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “Tariffs are supposed to protect domestic manufacturers, but in the U.S. there is only a tiny wool industry.”

Current tariffs are 15 percent for goods from the Republic of Ireland, 10 percent from Northern Ireland. These are up from tariffs that varied from 5 to 8 percent.

Yet, said Gardner, tariff numbers tell only half the story. The value of the U.S. dollar has plunged in past months, adding as much as an additional 15 percent.

Donegal Square is fully stocked for the holiday season because Gardiner, anticipating higher costs, ordered heavily in advance for the year’s final quarter. Of course, this did not come cheap because front-loading orders incurred interest costs.

Also, what about next year?

As an example, a jewelry supplier from Canada – where exports are subject to a 35 percent U.S. tariff – just increased his prices by 40 percent. Gardner is unclear how he could afford to either absorb, share or pass along such a rise.

Such uncertainty was shared by many of the vendors at last month’s Celtic Classic, in booths scattered below Bethlehem’s Hill-to-Hill Bridge. And, for Charles and Darcy Norton of Sheep’s Clothing, up from Baltimore, the impact has been immediate.

Goods such as their luxurious wool socks had arrived tariff-free if such shipments were valued at less than $800. That ended entirely Aug. 29, and the transition has proven anything but smooth.

One such shipment should have been tariff-free, Charles thought, yet U.S. Customs warned him that his shipment would be returned unless duty was paid within five days. He asked for clarification. He was given three days. Finally, he was given one day.

He paid.

This is how convoluted, and costly, matters now stand.

At USAKilts, kilts are indeed U.S. made, but the authentic tartan cloth is imported from legacy mills in Scotland and Ireland. Previously, costs pretty much split down the middle, half for imported woolens, half for construction. Now, said owner Rocky Roeger of Spring City, Pa., the cloth is hit with a 35-percent tariff atop an additional 10-percent levy.

Some fest vendors were reluctant to speak openly about tariffs. But at Sons of Vikings, based in Norfolk, Va., the owner did explain that a few of his foreign suppliers so far were “eating the tariffs.” In some other cases, vendors said the increased import costs were being shared with suppliers.

Jeff Plavier, an event volunteer from Bethlehem, reeled off the names of the longstanding mills that produce the tartans and other Celtic themed clothing on offer here. Gesturing toward racks stocked with scores of German-made Gottmann hats, he explained that in some cases, a higher price for something unique may not matter that greatly. The heart, he said, “knows what it wants.”