About 97 percent of clothing and shoes bought in the US.
Walmart, Gap Inc., Lululemon and Nike are some of the companies that have most of their clothes made in Asian countries.
Those same garments centers had great success under the president’s plan to punish individual countries for commercial imbalances.
For all Chinese products, that meant tariffs of at least 54 percent.
He established the tax rates for Vietnam and Cambodia neighbor in 46 percent and 49 percent, and Bangladesh products and Indonesia at 37 percent and 32 percent.
Working with foreign factories has kept work costs for US companies in fashion trade, but it is likely that neither their suppliers abroad absorb new costs so high.
India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka were also slapped with high tariffs, so they are not immediate escape alternatives.
“If these rates are allowed to persist, ultimately, it will be directed to the consumer,” said Steve Lamar, president and CEO of the American Association of Apoc.
Another commercial group, Footwear and Retail Distributors of America, provided estimates of the price increases that could be reserved for shoes, noting that 99 percent of couples sold in the US. UU. They are imports.
The work boots made in China that are now sold for $ 127 (US $ 77) would rise to $ 90, while customers would pay $ 364 for the running shoes made in Vietnam currently with a price of $ 256, the group said.
The president of Fdra, Matt Priest, predicted low -income families and the places they buy would feel the most impact.
He said that a couple of children’s shoes made in Chinese that cost $ 43 today will probably have a price of $ 67 in the shopping season back to school, according to the calculations of their group.
Preparing for a moving goal
Tariffs on the main fashion producers not only finished, but many of the materials used to make footwear and clothing shocked American retailers and brands.
Before Trump’s first mandate, US companies had begun to diversify outside China in response to commercial tensions, as well as human rights and environmental concerns.
They accelerated the rhythm when it ordered tariffs on Chinese products in 2018, changing more production to other countries in Asia.
Lululemon said in his last annual presentation that 40 percent of his sportswear last year was made in Vietnam, 17 percent in Cambodia, 11 percent in Sri Lanka, 11 percent in Indonesia and seven percent in Bangladesh.
Nike, Levi-Strauss, Ralph Lauren, Gap. Inc., Abercrombie & Fitch and VF Corporation, which Vans, North Face and Timberland has, also reported a very small dependence on clothing manufacturers and suppliers in China.
The Steve Madden shoes brand said in November that it would reduce imports from China to 45 percent this year due to Trump’s campaign promise to impose a 60 percent rate on all Chinese products.
The brand said that several years had passed a factory network in Cambodia, Vietnam, Mexico and Brazil.
Industry experts say that reliving the American clothing industry would be very expensive and would take years if it were feasible.
The number of people working in the manufacture of clothing in January 2015 stood at 139,000 and had decreased to 85,000 in January this year, according to the Office of Labor Statistics. Sri Lanka uses four more times despite having a population less than seventh of the size of the United States.
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Together with the lack of a qualified and arranged workforce, the United States does not have national sources for the more than 70 materials that are destined to make a typical shoe, said the distributors and retailers of America of footwear in the comments written to Trump’s commercial representative.
Shoe companies would need to find or configure factories to make cotton laces, eyelets, textile superiors and other components to make finished shoes in the US. UU. On a large scale, the group wrote.
“These materials simply do not exist here, and many of these materials have never existed in the United States,” the organization said.
Price increases can be a shock
The expected flood of clothing price increases would follow three decades of stability. The clothing cost us consumers essentially the same in 2024 as in 1994, according to data from the United States Labor Statistics Office.
Economists and industry analysts have attributed the tendency to free trade agreements, relocation of foreign countries where workers are paid much less and a heated competition for buyers between discount retailers and fast fashion brands such as H&M, Zara and Forever 21.
But customers are not accustomed to inflation in the clothing sector and leave several years of strong increase in the costs of groceries and housing can be very sensitive to any large jump in clothing prices.
Priest, of the distributors of footwear and retailers in America, said he has observed buyers removing shoes from Trump’s return to the White House.
“They are nervous,” he said. “Obviously they have been playing the long game in regards to inflation for several years. And they simply do not have resistance to absorb higher prices, particularly because the United States government is inflicted.”
Winners and losers in a commercial war of clothing
According to a report by the British Barclays Bank published on Friday, winners in the Wars Wars are retailers who have at least one of these attributes: great negotiation power with their suppliers, a strong brand and a limited supply in Asia.
In clothing and footwear, that includes retailers out of Burlington, Ross Stores Inc. and TJX Companies, which operates TJ Maxx and Marshalls, as well as Ralph Lauren and Dick’s Sporting Goods, according to the report.
Companies at a more difficult time are those with limited negotiation power, limited price power and high exposure to products in Asia, a list that includes GAP Inc., Urban Outfitters and American Eagle Outfitters, according to the report.
The Thredup -a -handed second -hand clothing resale checked a related action that Trump took with his latest tariff round: eliminating a widely used tax exemption that has allowed millions of low -cost goods, most of them originated in China, enter the U. Every day free of taxes.
“This policy change will increase the cost of disposable clothing produced economically imported from China, directly affecting the business model that feeds overproduction and environmental degradation,” said Thredup.
Several analysts and economists of the industry said they believe that tariffs will end up being an consumer sales tax that expands the yawn gap among the richest residents in the United States and those at the average and lower extreme of the income spectrum.
“So, where will your clothing buy the United States now that tariff rates in Bangladesh, Vietnam and China are astronomical?” Mary E. Lovely, a senior member of the Peterson Institute of International Economics, said about the schedule that will enter into force on Wednesday.
“Will the new ‘Golden Age’ involve weaving our own panties and putting our cell phones?”
