Tariffs Will Make Electronics More Expensive. If You Need a New Gadget, ‘Buy It Now’

If there's one word on your mind this week, it's probably tariffs. Last week, President Trump announced sweeping tariffs on foreign goods imported into the US, setting the stage for a global trade war and stoking fears of a recession. A blanket 10 percent tariff on all imports kicked off on Saturday, April 5, with additional reciprocal tariffs on 60 countries to take effect by April 9. It's a wildly dynamic situation that's changing by the day, but you might wonder how this affects you. The first thing to know is that tariffs are paid by the company importing a product into the country. In short, that fee affects their bottom line, so companies often pass those costs on to consumers by increasing the price of the goods. Here's an example from Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University: Let’s say a laptop costs $400 at import in the US. A retailer would then add an average gross margin rate of 30 percent—how much revenue the retailer retains afte ... Read full article.