Many prominent companies are currently seeking tariff exemption from the Trump Administration in wake of the next big round of tariffs on imported Chinese goods. The next set of tariffs is set to take action on October 15th, affecting over 31,000 products. The tariff hikes are the result of the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China and have companies concerned about the impact the tariffs are having on their margins and supply chain relationships. One such exemption filing stated, “It is important to protect the price point that our customer can afford, and we cannot pass any additional cost increase on to the customer without pricing ourselves out of the market.”
Roughly a third of the exemption requests are from the national supplier Arrowhead Engineered Products, which imports Chinese replacement parts for cars, all-terrain vehicles, and lawn-mowers. The U.S. Trade Representative has approved 61 of 439 requests on the latest round of tariffs so far, and Apple captured 10 of them. The rest of the companies remain hopeful they can become exempt from the tariffs in order to retain market share and their sensitive margins in this competitive economy.
Business Barrage 