‘Trump Tariffs’ to take effect Saturday, St. Louis businesses affected
“We tell consumers we don’t know what the future is going to be, it’s unlikely that the price is going to down”
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Tariffs on goods from the United States’ three largest trading partners: Canada, Mexico, and China will arrive on Saturday. The three countries for more than a third of the goods and services brought to the U.S. and they will cost businesses and consumers in the Bi-State.
“You think that it’s the countries that are paying the tariff but actually what happens its very often the importers who pay the tariffs,” said Jerome Katz, Entrepreneurship Professor at St. Louis University.
Katz said the point is to create competition.
“Typically, to help the native businesses compete on a more economically effective basis,” said Katz.
About half of the United States' shoes are manufactured in China, and the President of the Hoy Shoe Company based in St. Louis says he would split the cost between the company and the consumer ahead of the tariffs.
“Anywhere from 1 to 2 percent of our shoes sold in a year are manufactured in the US, the rest of them are all done in... we have 2 factories in China,” said Jeff Downs, President of Hoy Shoe Company.
He said for a smaller company, it’s not as simple as just stopping manufacturing out of the country.
“We make a good quality product at a fair price and so if we had to suddenly pull up and find new factories... You have to make molds, you have to make dyes,” said Downs.
Another St. Louis-based business, Authorized Appliance, shares the same sentiment. The CEO tells First Alert 4, that when tariffs took off during President Trump’s first term, they had to increase costs.
“We tell consumers we don’t know what the future is going to be, it’s unlikely that the price is going to down so if you’re prepared to buy something and you know you’re going to buy it in the future, we would advise you to buy it sooner rather than later,” said Justin Breckle, CEO of Authorized Appliance.
Mexico, Canada, and China’s governments have all vowed to respond to Trump’s tariffs with some of their own.
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