Trump Threatens Walmart Not To React to His Tariffs
President Donald Trump growled at the world’s largest retailer over the weekend, ordering it not to raise prices in response to his tariffs.
After weeks of saber-rattling between the United States and China, the countries agreed to a detente, during which American tariffs on China would come down to 30 percent (plus a 10-percent baseline), from as high as 145 percent. Still, that’s higher than they were before the trade war, and Walmart—the U.S.-based retail giant with over $600 billion in annual global sales—cautioned last week that it may soon have to start raising prices as a result of Trump’s trade barriers.
“Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected. Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers ANYTHING. I’ll be watching, and so will your customers!!!”
In just a few short sentences, Trump’s missive includes both an implicit threat against an American company and a fundamental understanding of simple economics. At the same time, it sugests that he may know more about the effects of his own policies than he has let on in the past.
Walmart currently imports about 60 percent of its products from China, totaling $49 billion last year. With a flick of Trump’s pen, Walmart must now pay an additional $15 billion just to import the same amount, and he insists the company should “eat” that cost.
The company actually imports less from China than in years past—as recently as 2018, the share was closer to 80 percent, whereas it has now diversified its supply chain and gets more from countries like Vietnam and India. But
Article from Reason.com
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