The 194-page list of tariffs targeting a wide variety of products – from sockeye salmon to baseball gloves to bamboo mats – also includes 5,745 full or partial lines of the original list of more than 6,000.

A six week public-comment period ended Aug. 27, and Community Development Foundation President and CEO David Rumbarger was among those who spoke before a USTR hearing.

He warned that 14,000 furniture-related jobs could be jeopardized by tariffs on many of the components used by furniture companies in Northeast Mississippi.

Of the 66 classifications of products used by area companies, 46 will have the tariff tacked on. Initially, it appears manufacturers will be given a little relief – no motors used by motion furniture (recliners) are on the list. However, many fabrics and the cut-and-sew kits are still subject to tariffs.

Still, rolls of fabric and leather are slapped with the tariff, which could lead to those costs being passed on to consumers.

It will take some time to determine exactly what those added costs may be and how much furniture manufacturers and suppliers are willing and able to absorb.

“I have asked the companies to let me know what the impact is,” Rumbarger said. ”It looks like we did do well to testify and write comments.”

Furniture executives and representatives told the U.S. Trade Representative’s office and the Trump administration of the impact of the tariffs that could cut already thin profit margins. It seems the administration took some of their concerns into account, but not all of them.

The announcement Monday was the third round of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Already a 10 percent tariff on steel and aluminum products and 25 percent tariffs on another $50-billion-worth of Chinese goods have been in place. China has retaliated in kind, hitting American soybeans, among other goods, in a shot at the president’s supporters in the U.S. farm belt.

Beijing has warned that it would hit an additional $60 billion in American goods if Trump ordered more tariffs. If China does retaliate, Trump threatened Monday to add another $267 billion in Chinese imports to the target list. That would raise the total to $517 billion – covering nearly everything China sells to the United States.

(Source: djournal.com)