Shoe company Steve Madden announced it would slash Chinese imports up for 45% over the next year shortly after the re-election of Donald Trump, who has pledged to place tariffs on imports from China as high as 60%.
The company’s CEO, Edward Rosenfeld, stated that his company in recent years had been examining alternatives to importing goods from China, naming Brazil, Cambodia, Mexico and Vietnam, CNBC reported.
“As of yesterday morning, we are putting that plan into motion,” he said. “And you should expect to see the percentage of goods that we sourced from China to begin to come down more rapidly going forward.” He estimated his company’s imports amounted to roughly two-thirds of their business, with about 70% of that coming from China.
“Our goal over the next year is to reduce that percentage of goods that we sourced from China by approximately 40% to 45%, which means that if we’re able to achieve that and we think we have the plan to do it, that a year from today, we would be looking at just over a quarter of our business that would be subject to potential tariffs on Chinese goods,” he added.
Trump has been outspoken about his tough attitude toward China. In October, he told The Wall Street Journal how he would react if China invaded Taiwan: “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you at 150% to 200%.” During Trump’s first term, he imposed tariffs of as much as 25% on Chinese imports.
With China’s economy slowing considerably, a 60% Trump tariff on Chinese imports could reduce China’s exports by $200 billion, Zhu Baoliang, a former chief economist at China’s economic planning agency, claimed.
“The IMF now expects the Chinese economy to expand by 4.8% in 2024, at the lower end of Beijing’s ‘about 5%’ target. Next year, it projects China’s annual growth rate will drop further to 4.5%,” the BBC reported.
“China’s yuan is sliding for the sixth consecutive week as investors grow anxious about potential tariff hikes following Donald Trump’s election win,” Finimize reported on Friday, adding, “… the yuan weakened by 5% after initial US tariffs in 2018, with a further 1.5% dip as tensions grew.”
