Amazon denies tariff label plans after White House criticism
Bloomberg Skylar Woodhouse and Matt Day Amazon com Inc noted Tuesday it will not display the cost of US tariffs on products after the White House blasted the informed move and President Donald Trump called Jeff Bezos to complain The organization that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products the company stated in a declaration Teams discuss ideas all the time This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties Amazon spokesperson Tim Doyle commented in a subsequent message that the proposal was never approved and is not going to happen The White House earlier Tuesday seized on a brief Punchbowl News summary that the e-commerce giant would soon begin displaying the cost of US tariffs on individual products next to the total listed price White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blasted the purported plans as a hostile and political act Why didn t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in years she communicated reporters at a briefing Leavitt disclosed she had spoken to Trump about the overview and went on to criticize Amazon s compliance with censorship demands by the Chinese regime Trump called Amazon founder Bezos on Tuesday morning according to a person familiar with the situation CNN released the call earlier Amazon shares fell as much as at the open of trading in New York after the White House s comments before paring losses The firm is set to description earnings after the bell on Thursday with its stock down more than from a February record high Companies like Temu and fast-fashion giant Shein Group Ltd are bracing for a tariff on a great number of of their products due to the US administration s decision to end the de minimis exemption for small packages from mainland China and Hong Kong Specific Amazon shipments also qualify for that exemption but the company also buys goods in bulk which it ships to its US warehouses Amazon launched its Haul operation which ships items directly from sellers including in China last year a response to the rise of Temu the low-cost shopping app that gained traction despite long shipping times Temu has thrived in part thanks to duty-free shipments on goods valued under Amazon s prospective import charge disclosure was related to the end of that de minimis exemption not the White House s tariff plans according to a person familiar with the matter Exporters in up-to-date years had capitalized on the exemption which allowed goods valued at under to enter the US without tariffs or customs duties Leavitt declined to answer when petitioned if the move had strained the relationship between the president and Bezos who has sought to curry favor with Trump in fresh months Bezos and Trump frequently clashed during the president s first term over the billionaire s ownership of the Washington Post I will not speak to the president s relationships with Jeff Bezos Leavitt explained Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent who attended the press briefing stated any move to highlight tariffs was unfair when the costs of policies implemented by other administrations including regulations weren t broken out Related Articles Meta launches standalone AI app in bid to compete with ChatGPT How Covered California sent case s personal wellbeing content to LinkedIn Big Tech s earnings matter is estimates may be way too high IBM plans to invest billion in US over next five years Tech industry tried reducing AI s pervasive bias Now Trump wants to end its woke AI efforts The big tax on consumers that goes unnoticed is deregulation or regulation and we are deregulating and bringing that down Bessent stated So you know from a household income point of view we would expect real purchasing increases that we ve seen over the first days and we would expect that to accelerate A CNN poll issued this week revealed of the inhabitants believe Trump s policies have made the economic activity worse with six in believing his efforts have increased their cost of living Nearly seven in of survey respondents say they believe an economic recession is somewhat likely in the next year With assistance from Stephanie Lai and Matt Turner Updates with Trump-Bezos call starting in first paragraph More stories like this are available on bloomberg com Bloomberg L P
