President Donald Trump’s new tariffs will make Americans pay more for Chinese products. More notable for video producers, you can expect to pay more for monopods, tripods and PCs.
Today, Trump’s administration increased the tariffs that were first enforced last year. The tariffs — affecting $200 billion worth of Chinese imports — have been raised to 25 percent. That’s more than double the previous rate of 10 percent.
According to the official $200 billion tariff list, it starts with “frozen retail cuts of meat of swine” and ends with “monopods, bipods, tripods and similar articles of aluminum.” So content creators buying in America should expect to pay more for their aluminum camera gear. Also, computers and computer parts will see an increase in cost because of the tariffs as well.
How will the tariff increase affect American consumers?
Consumers are expected to be hit in two different ways. Stores that are already passing on the cost of the 10 percent tariffs will now have to pass on a higher cost. Also, both large and small businesses that tried to protect their customers will no longer be able to avoid passing the extra cost on their American customers.
This is a very abrupt increase in tariffs. The National Retail Federation has been warning consumers this week they need to expect to deal with higher costs on many goods.
“A sudden tariff increase with less than a week’s notice would severely disrupt U.S. businesses, especially small companies that have limited resources to mitigate the impact,” said David French, the federation’s senior vice president for government relations. “If the administration follows through on this threat, American consumers will face higher prices and U.S. jobs will be lost.”
There may be more tariffs to come
It’s possible President Trump could send out even more tariffs. Presumably, they’d affect clothing, shoes and goods the administration has tried to keep off the list of goods affected. Regardless, it’s unlikely businesses can take on the full margin of the tariffs without lowering profits. Some will have no choice but to charge more. As a result, creators will need to pay more if they want aluminum camera gear and a new computer.
Image courtesy creativepadphotography.com
