What Trump s Trade War Means For Your Black Friday Shopping And Beyond

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US shoppers may face higher prices on consumer electronics after this holiday season if the US and China don't reach a trade agreement by a Dec. 15 deadline. 

Joshua Lott/Getty


For Deena Ghazarian, President Donald Trump's trade war with China couldn't have come at a worse time. Less than a month after the founder of audio accessories startup [ Austere] kicked off sales this summer, the US [ imposed tariffs on $125 billion worth of products made in China]. Another round of [/news/us-might-extend-some-tariff-exclusions-on-chinese-imports/ tariffs] affecting a wider array of consumer tech products, kynghidongduong.vn including [/topics/laptops/ laptops] and cellphones, is due to take effect Dec. 15 unless the [ US and China strike a trade deal]. This new round of tariffs is expected to affect $160 billion in imports from China. 
The September tariffs hit Austere's entire catalog of 25 products with an extra 25% to 27% in costs. The impact on Gharzarian's business has been devastating, she said. 

"It's taken 10% off my bottom line," she said in an interview. Gharzarian, who is based outside of Portland, Oregon, added she's done everything she can to avoid passing on the cost of the tariffs to customers. She scrambled before the launch of the company's first products to find alternative manufacturing partners outside of China to help avoid the tariffs and worked with retailers to spread the effects of the added cost of her products. 

And yet she said the cost of getting her products to market was still at least 20% more than she had hoped, which resulted in higher prices. 

"We're still competitive," she said. But all of this maneuvering also delayed the launch of her products by nearly half a year She also said that the company has delayed the introduction of additional products and that the situation has slowed her ability to hire more workers. 

"It's definitely taken my eye off of being more innovative," she said. "I've had to spend a lot of time figuring out how to work around what's happening."



























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Even big tech companies like [/apple/ Apple] could be impacted in significant ways if the next set of tariffs hits in mid-December. A research note from Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives last week estimates that an additional 10% tariff on China would mean a 4% hit to Apple's per-share earnings.

So far, consumers have largely been shielded from price increases as suppliers, tour trung quoc manufacturers and retailers have tried to spread the cost of the new tariffs throughout the supply chain to soften the impact on consumers. But experts say the next round of tariffs, if they go into effect as planned, could become the breaking point. 

"The administration has tried to avoid tariffs on consumer products up to this point," said William Reinsch, a former senior US Commerce Department official and a trade expert at the [ Center for Strategic and International Studies]. "But this last tranche of products hasn't been covered and will hit a lot of consumer end products, which will be felt."


What's the effect of tariffs on the tech industry?
Trump has insisted that China pays the cost of tariffs. Economists say the actual costs fall on US businesses and then on consumers. Trump indirectly acknowledged the tariffs' impact on American companies and consumers when he delayed the tariffs on products he knew would be affected by holiday sales. Eventually, though, China could be affected if its exporters decide to slash prices to stay competitive.

The Consumer Technology Association, which has been tracking the cost of the trade war, said the first round of tariffs in September on goods such as [/topics/tvs/ TVs], digital cameras, Bluetooth earbuds, smartwatches and wearable fitness trackers surpassed $2 billion. The industry association calculates the cost of the trade war thus far at about $15.5 billion, including nearly $1.5 billion in taxes for [/news/how-5g-got-tied-up-in-a-trade-war-between-trump-and-china/ products critical to 5G deployment].