The President of the tariffs Amazon, what is going on? It's time for Gary and Shannon show breakdown?
So why doesn't somebody tell me what they think is going on?
Those can be hard explain this to me like I'm a two year old, OK.
You need a breakdown with Gary and Shannon.
Starts with a report that Amazon was going to display the cost of tariffs next to the total price of products on its site. This was a question this morning posed to Caroline Levitt and Scott Bessen, the Treasury Secretary at the White House.
So it was reported this morning that Amazon will soon display a little number next to the price of each product that shows how much the Trump tariffs are adding to the cost of each product. So isn't that a perfect crystal clear demonstration that it's the American consumer and not China you is going to have to pay for these policies.
I will take this since I just got off the phone with President about Amazon's announcement. This is a hostile and political act by Amazon. Why did Amazon do this when the Biden administration height inflation to the highest level in forty years? And I would also add that it's not a surprise because as Reyers recently wrote Amazon has partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.
Okay, go on, I was just going to say that the word hostile evokes a terminology that's used for war, a hostile act. Anyway, the administration's reaction, Amazon says, was based on a misinterpretation of internal plans being considered by Amazon, rather than a final decision made by the company. They considered the idea Amazon's Hall service did, that is, their
recently launched low cost storefront. They considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products, but this was never an approved idea.
They also add were looking at adding a separate line item to products on the Hall site in response to the removal of the dominimous trade loophole. That consideration was not related to the tariffs one hundred and forty five percent terariffs that we've seen on imports from China now. Punch Bowl News was the organization that originally reported that Amazon Big Amazon would soon, in quotes, begin displaying the cost of tariffs alongside the price of each product, citing
a source familiar with the company's plans. Again, as of right now, Amazon said it did consider displaying import charges, but that it was never approved and that it is quote not going to happen.
Small businesses are having a tough go of this, not the Amazons of the world. They are reporting dwindling inventory, skyrocketing invoices, and the Trump administration has raised tariffs on goods from China to one hundred and forty five percent in early this month, early April. Now, he did say last week where we last left off with Trump, he
said he expected the tariffs to come down substantially. And that is kind of what small businesses are laser focused on when the back and forth causing a lot of problems when it comes to what is a bottom line without a lot of wiggle room with these businesses.
The bigger businesses are getting some concessions. Trump is expected to soften the automotive tariffs. It would prevent duties on the foreign made cars from stacking on top of the other tariffs that he is imposed. So as of right now, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that automakers that pay the car tariffs will not be charged for other tariffs things like steel and aluminum. The move would also be retroactive, meaning that those car makers could be reimbursed for things
that they've already paid. The five percent tariff on finished foreign made cars went into effect earlier this month.
The Treasury Secretary Scompsen says the goal there is to help automakers create more domestic manufacturing jobs.
I don't know if that's going to happen.
Well, we're okay in this department, so let's create more jobs. I don't see that happening. You're not getting that much savings to create jobs domestically, at least not at this point.
And in the meantime, we're starting to see the very immediate effects of the tariff war in that the imports into the ports of LA and Long Beach are going down. An interview this morning Jean Soroka, who has one of the most polished speaking abilities I've heard in a long time, actually explains what we're going to see in the next
couple of weeks here in LA and Long Beach. Jean Soroka, Executive Director of the Port of LA gave an interview this morning CNBC, and he was talking about the impact that tariffs and the fight over tariff's, potential trade war, etc. Is going to have at the point of the spear when it comes to Imports, which is the largest port on the West Coast.
The ports of la and Long Beach to be down just a little bit over thirty five percent next week compared to last year, and it's a precipitous drop in volume, with a number of major American retailers stopping all.
Shipments from China based on the tariffs.
The interesting thing I think about this is the way he described not just the port but the shipping companies themselves trying to make up for this, because remember, China makes up the bulk of imports into our country. We get most of our stuff that he referred to it as China is our factory in that they produce so much, so the shippers are going to try to go elsewhere perhaps and get other things to pick up before they come into the United States.
Now, what we have heard in talking directly to CEOs and senior executives of the shipping lines is they'll try to add a couple of port calls in a low along the Southeast Asia routes where cargo is still moving, albeit at a ten percent tariff, But realistically speaking, until some accord or framework can be reached with China, the volume coming out of there save a couple of different commodities will be very light at best.
Well, yeah, you want to leave everything where it is. You don't want to unpack it if it's going to cost you more to either buy it or sell it, right, So why would you have any sense of urgency? I would just leave things where they are until something gets ironed out here.
Well, on this his description of how long it takes to iron things out is going to be important as well.
And that's what goes back to what I was talking about in the last segment. With small businesses, one during you know, with their inventory dwindling is they don't want to buy new stuff at a heightened rate if they can wait, because there's no wiggle room when it comes to the bottom line.
Yeah, So if you are that small business that relies on raw materials from China or even finished products from China that you resell, does it make financial sense to try to find a new supplier in a place like Cambodia or Vietnam.
Major American retailers put their orders into factories in Asia three or four months before a vessel even sales our way, which is an additional two week transit time. So simply shifting from your manufacturer in China over to Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia.
That quickly normally doesn't happen. There's some negotiations that have to take place in addition to finding the necessary capacity, because a lot of folks are running to these locations now to try to augment the loss of volume coming out of China.
This guy has taken a public speaking class.
Clearly is that name sounds very familiar?
Soroka as head of LA Portal, I know who now, and then he described this is what in terms of on the streets for consumers, what the impact would be. We are going to see a shrinking of materials, a shrinking of inventories, but we're not necessarily going to see empty shelves completely.
Now.
I don't see a complete emptiness on store shelves or online what we're buying. But if you're out looking for a blue shirt, you might find eleven purple ones and one blue and a size that's not yours. So we'll start seeing less choice on those shelves simply because we're not getting the variety of goods coming in here based on the additional costs in place, and for that one blue shirt that's still left, you'll see a price hike.
So if you're in the market for a blue shirt right now, he says, there's about five to seven weeks, depending on the industry, five to seven weeks of inventory for just different products, and that if we don't see a lot of movement within the next couple of weeks, that's when you're going to start seeing things. As we get deeper into May, probably early to mid June is when we're going to start actually noticing some of the
shortages that have been threatened because of the tariffs. So and again, the President has said this one hundred and forty five percent tariff on Chinese products will not last, that there will be some movement. We just don't know
what sort of a timeline that is. We've also not been shown any of the alleged deals that have been worked on right now between the United States and other countries outside of China that I think would have an impact at least on consumer sentiment that they the feeling that something is being done.
I don't know, because until they get to China, I mean, I don't really I don't know how much the deals with the smaller places or smaller trade organizations matter.
I just think at least there would be some momentum. At this point. They keep talking about it was and they're not showing any sort of progress. Yeah, so I don't know.
Yeah, that would be nice to see something right, something tangible,