Dear Valued Partner,
On September 17, 2018, the United States President signed $200 Billion in new tariffs. These "301" tariffs impact a broad range of products including Stone Products, Flooring, Furniture’s, Kitchen Cabinets, etc.
These tariffs are effective with 7-day notice to the business community. In short, a 10% tariff will be applied to many types of imported products effective September 24, 2018. Further, these tariffs are planned to increase to 25% effective January 1, 2019.
The duration of these tariffs is unclear and the probability that they will increase to 25% in January is also unclear. The reality for us and our customers in our industry is as follows:
Product pricing on many imported goods will increases 10% due to tariffs on Monday, September 24th.
This doesn’t affect just finished imported products. "Domestic" manufacturers rely significantly on material and components which are imported and utilized in a production process. As a result, products which are made domestically still may see a cost ramification.
With the tariff implementation, other countries from whom the US imports material will, in effect be seeing a large influx of orders that may delay transit to the US.
Bids provided through an RFP Responses prior to this date will likely require a re-qualification of cost prior to order to validate accuracy. Prior to this point, extent of tariff impact was unknown and likely not included specifically by vendors.
We are a small business and serve a multitude of projects and product scopes. We wanted to notify all of our business partners that there may be unforeseen cost increases outside of our collective control on materials involved in our projects. As always, our first goal is the service to our end users, and we will do our best to work with you individually to see what the best options are for your project.
Please understand that many products may not be effected, and many materials which are utilized in our relationships are not implicated. We will continue to be flexible in how material is sourced, and will work collaboratively with all of our partners on how to best approach this new hurdle.
Our team is dedicated and committed to providing the best possible product sourcing, project management, and value we can. We will continue to strive for these best value practices. We recommend you discuss the tariffs openly with your customers/project teams.
Additional Information on the USTR301 China Tariffs can be found here: https://ustr.gov/about-us/policy-offices/press-office/press-releases/2018/september/ustr-finalizes-tariffs-200
Sincerely,
Tom Metzger
Metzger, Inc.