Last Friday, the news that negotiators from Washington and Beijing would attempt to hammer out a road map to avert a full-blown trade war between the world’s largest economies came as a relief to Wall Street, free-traders, and U.S. companies who’ve suffered as a result of Donald Trump’s decision to hit Beijing with a series of escalating tariffs. Unfortunately, the feeling was short-lived, because on Monday, the president indicated that he has no intention of backing off of his misguided trade policies anytime soon, telling Reuters he has “no time frame” for ending the dispute. His administration is also reportedly moving forward with plans to impose tariffs on nearly half of all Chinese imports, a move that doesn’t exactly scream we’re at this negotiating table to de-escalate tensions.

The U.S. is considering tariffs of either 10 percent or 25 percent on thousands of categories of products, including for the first time a substantial number of consumer goods, including furniture, computer parts and luggage.

Not only is China unlikely to be thrilled by the move, but U.S. firms are literally begging the White House not to go through with the fresh levies, as they would effectively kill American companies caught in the cross fire. On Monday, during the first of six days of public hearings concerning the tariffs, business owners pleaded their cases. Melissa Mash, the founder of an online handbag company, said that should the proposed tariffs be implemented “we would not hit profitability for many more years, we would not be able to hire the 10 additional people we had planned.” Jim Day, vice president of global supply chain at 47 Brand LLC, which manufactures baseball hats and other sports goods, said his company would likely have to lay off workers. Others attempted to explain that the notion of simply finding alternative suppliers not subject to tariffs isn’t as simple as the president’s stooges seem to believe:

Witnesses underscored the difficulty of trying to find suppliers outside China for their products. In some cases, executives and industry representatives said that the components or products are only available in China or cautioned against the time and resources necessary for establishing a supply line in a different country, including the U.S.