'Bear the burden': CEOs warn major price hikes already planned to offset Trump tariffs

Kathleen Culliton
October 30, 2024 

Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the press at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., September 26, 2024. REUTERS/David Dee Delgado

A slew of businesses across the U.S. say they're preparing to spike prices should former President Donald Trump regain the White House in 2025, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

Companies that rely on foreign suppliers for baby products, auto parts and clothing — to name just a few — say the only way to survive Trump's promised tariffs on foreign imports will be to offload the cost on consumers, according to the report.

“We’re set to raise prices,” Timothy Boyle, chief executive of Columbia Sportswear, told the Post. “It’s going to be very, very difficult to keep products affordable for Americans."
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The Post reported that Trump's pledged tariffs would be the heaviest since the 1930s and could reach up to 60 percent on Chinese products.

While Trump claimed foreign companies will pay the tariffs, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency demands American purchasers pay when their products enter the country, according to the Post.

Investors in AutoZone — an auto parts retailer that sources supplies from China , India and Germany — received word this month that consumers will be asked to pay the increase, the Post reported.

“We know what the tariffs will be ,” Philip Daniele, CEO of AutoZone, reportedly said. “We generally raise prices ahead of that.”

An analysis by the nonpartisan Budget Lab at Yale University also contradicts Trump's claim that foreign entities will bear the financial burden of his tariffs, the Post reported.

“A consistent theoretical and empirical finding in economics is that domestic consumers and domestic firms bear the burden of a tariff, not the foreign country,” the study stated.

According to the Washington Post, Stanley Black & Decker CEO Donald Allan told investors this year the company would likely offset tariffs with “some surgical price actions."