Best Buy says expanded tariffs would cost consumers

Company official says that added costs will be passed on immediately to the customer.

WASHINGTON – Best Buy Inc. warned Monday that a Trump administration threat to tax all Chinese-made consumer electronics up to 25% “could be immediately passed on to U.S. consumers.”

Jason Bonfig, Best Buy’s chief merchandising officer, said in testimony to the U.S. trade representative (USTR) that companies are running out of inventory purchased at pre-tariff prices and can no longer absorb cost increases to Chinese-made consumer electronics critical to their businesses.

Bonfig was among speakers on the first of six days of pleas by more than 300 American companies and business organizations from a variety of sectors. The presenters are part of a last-ditch push by America’s business community to stop a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.

View the complete June 17 article by Jim Spencer on The Star Tribune website here.