Black Friday shoppers have President Trump to thank news by Hebei longsheng
| Black Friday shoppers have President Trump to thank for pre-tariff bargains Strong consumer confidence and concerns about a widening of the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese exports have led to a surge in U.S. imports of consumer electronics and home appliances ahead of the holiday shopping season. Seaborne imports of laptop computers surged 46.4% on a year earlier for the four months running to Oct. 31 - the main shipping season for holiday sales products. Meanwhile imports of TVs climbed 36.6% and audio systems increased 30.2% over the same period. A similar effect can be seen for household appliances with fridges rising 56.9% and microwaves by 20.0%. By contrast a decline in washing machines was due to tariffs applied in early 2017. With 51.4% of U.S. home appliance imports coming from China it’s likely there was stockpiling ahead of a potential new round of tariffs in the new year. Exporters from China that have accelerated shipments include Dometic’s 85.1% surge and Midea’s 16.1% rise, while LG Electronics and Samsung Electronics both dropped as a result of the aforementioned washing machine tariffs. |
