China tariffs will burn holes in consumer wallets during holiday season, NRF exec says
President Trump’s new round of tariffs on Chinese goods are set to kick in on Sept.1 and will hit U.S. consumers just as they begin to shop for the upcoming holiday season according to a National Retail Federation (NRF) executive.
“Certainly the tariffs land right in the middle of the busy holiday-shipping season,” NRF senior vice president of government relations David French told FOX Business’ Neil Cavuto. “Our busiest months for... imports for shipping in retail are August, September and October – that sets up the holiday season and so the price increases are likely to be felt by consumers fairly quickly.”
French said it will cost $4.4 billion more for apparel and $4.7 billion more for toys as a result of the tariffs.
“That’s what people buy at the holiday season and it’s going to cost more,” he explained.
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However French also said retailers are doing “everything they can to mitigate the harm ." But to some extent, he noted retailers are at the mercy of President Trump's twitter account. "Retailers just don’t know when the next tweet is going to happen," said French, "and when the next cost increase is going to be enforced on their supply chain."
French added that larger retailers have the ability to get ahead of the tariffs by bringing products into the U.S. earlier.