Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Retail Federation Study Echoes Tariff News from 2019
November 6,
2024 by Karen Parrish in Business Strategy, Industry 
In 2019, a news story on Reuters headlined "How tariff hikes are squeezing the U.S. Furniture Business." Information in the article referenced the "25% levy on $200 billion of Chinese imports." Furniture retailers had to deal with what they called "the chaos created by Trump's trade policy decisions" by raising prices on their furniture.
Reuters spoke to more than a dozen furniture retailers, manufacturers and vendors who were adopting strategies imposed from the China tariffs as well as goods coming from Mexico. Some of those companies also raised prices while others cancelled or paused orders, and still other imposed new, tougher contract terms and looked to even more ways to reroute sourcing or share costs.
As the article points out, furniture is not food, "rarely is it a case where somebody has to buy it."
Now, we are post-election and his economic plan on his campaign for re-election, Trump floated the idea of a 10-20% universal tariff on imports from all foreign countries and an additional 60-100% tariff on imports from China.
In a study from the National Retail Federation on Monday, it reported the proposed tariffs would impact anywhere China is a major supplier including apparel, appliances and furniture. The NRF Vice President of Supply Chain and Customs Policy, Jonathan Gold said, "Retailers rely heavily on imported products and manufacturing components so that they can offer their customers a variety of products at affordable prices. A tariff is a tax paid by the U.S. importer, not a foreign country or the exporter. This tax ultimately comes out of consumers’ pockets through higher prices.”
The report showed that U.S. shoppers could lost up to $78 billion in annual spending power in the six product categories mentioned in the report (apparel, toys, furniture, household appliances, footwear and travel goods) if Trump's new tariffs on imports are implemented.
Another key finding in the study indicated "the increased costs as a result of the proposed tariffs would be too large for U.S. retailers to absorb and would result in prices higher than many consumers would be willing or able to pay."
In the furniture category, consumers would pay $8.5 to $13.1 billion more, and "for all categories examined, the total average tariff would exceed 50% in the extreme tariff scenario, up in most cases from single or low double digits currently."