Walmart Warns It Will Be Forced To Raise Prices Due To Trade War
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Fri, 09/21/2018
One of the reasons why the US economic response to Trump’s trade war with China had been lukewarm at best, is that US consumers had not been subject to any of the inflationary consequences of the escalating tariffs between Washington and Beijing. That, however, is about to change: overnight Walmart issued a warning in a letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer that it may have to raise prices due to tariffs on Chinese imports, CNN Money reported.
“The immediate impact will be to raise prices on consumers and tax American business and manufacturers,” Walmart said, according to the CNN Money report.
The letter came two weeks after Walmart asked the Trump administration to walk back its plan to put tariffs on Christmas lights, shampoo, dog food, luggage, mattresses, handbags, backpacks, vacuum cleaners, bicycles, cooking grills, cable cords and air conditioners.
However, the administration was unmoved and on Monday, it pressed forward with 10% tariffs on those products and $200 billion worth of other imports from China. The tariffs, which take effect next week, will jump to 25% at the end of the year, and target far more consumer goods – some $78BN according to DB calculations – than the first phase of $50BN in tariffs, that had relatively little impact.
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