Steve Lamar, president and CEO of AAFA, criticised the move as economically harmful, stating that “tariffs are taxes borne by American companies that import goods and the hardworking American families that buy them.”
Lamar underscored that even before the new measures, clothing and footwear already faced average tariffs more than five times higher than other US imports. He said the latest announcement only adds to the financial pressure on American families and businesses, fuelling inflation and compounding uncertainty in the market.
“True liberation would have meant eliminating this high tariff burden,” Lamar said, describing the Administration’s actions as regressive and damaging to long-term investment.
“While we welcome President Trump’s focus on reducing foreign trade barriers, we need to reduce America’s high trade barriers as well and do so in a predictable manner that enables long-term investment and supply chain decisions. For companies that had been in a ‘wait and see’ mode, the chaos of the last few months, coupled with the confusion from today’s announcement has only created more uncertainty,” he added.
“While the President touts ‘America First’ policies, this tariff plan overlooks its destructive impact it will have on the US manufacturers in our industry. These American companies depend on foreign inputs which have no, or very few, American substitutes. Tariffs will significantly increase the cost of manufacturing in the US, and, when paired with the retaliatory tariffs that will surely come, will undermine US export opportunities as well,” Lamar concluded.
ALCHEMPro News Desk (KD)
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