Connect with us

Business

How Trump’s Tariffs on China Are Affecting Toy Companies

Published

on

How Trump’s Tariffs on China Are Affecting Toy Companies

At the biggest toy industry trade show in the Western Hemisphere this weekend, toy makers, as usual, displayed seemingly endless rows of stuffed animals, action figures and puzzles, hoping to entice retailers to pick their products.

But this year, the chatter at Toy Fair New York was dominated not by the next Barbie, but a larger game, one of global tactics, that could make most toys more expensive for U.S. consumers.

Almost 80 percent of toys sold in the United States are made in China. Last week, just as toy vendors from across the United States and dozens of other countries started to flock to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for the annual toy fair, President Trump announced a 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods that would come on top of the 10 percent he already imposed a month ago.

Companies big and small — from family-owned brands to household names — are trying to figure out how to manage the new costs related to tariffs. Stationed at a booth lined with plush stuffed animals, Linda Colson, the vice president of sales at Mary Meyer Corporation, said her company, based in Vermont, was in a state of paralysis over pricing. “We don’t know what to do,” she said. “I think a lot of people in this building are just waiting to see what everybody else is doing.”

Jay Foreman, the chief executive of Basic Fun, a toy manufacturer and distributor in Florida, sells to retailers including Walmart and Target. After Mr. Trump ordered the 10 percent tariff on China in February, Mr. Foreman started thinking of ways to avoid passing those costs onto his customers. So last Wednesday, he met with his company’s board of directors to devise a plan that would split the burden: the company, its factories in China and its retail customers would each absorb 3.5 percent of the added cost.

Advertisement

But just hours later, Mr. Foreman tuned into CNBC and heard Mr. Trump declare that new tariffs on China could jump to a total of 20 percent this week. The company’s plans “went right out the window,” said Mr. Foreman, whose company employs about 110 people in the United States and a total of 165 people globally.

“Now, those can’t be absorbed, and that additional tariff has to be passed onto the consumer,” he added. “It tipped the domino.”

The Tonka Mighty Dump Truck, which Basic Fun makes under a license from Hasbro, currently retails for $29.99. That price will probably increase between $5 and $10 for consumers, Mr. Foreman said.

Some of the bigger companies at the convention expressed confidence that their Chinese suppliers would absorb a portion of the added costs, as factories would not want to lose business.

Safari, which sells animal figurines, produces about 90 percent of its products in China, said Danny Falero, the company’s director of marketing, and manufacturers have said they are willing to make some concessions. He emphasized that his company did not intend to raise prices unless Mr. Trump’s policies went into effect.

Advertisement

“It’s slightly theater, so let’s see what actually lands, and then we’ll make adjustments based on that,” Mr. Falero said.

Looming tariffs were weighing heavily on Luis Prior, who owns Meavia Toys, a small company in Corbin, Ky. His three-year-old business designs sensory toys for children with special needs and are sold to teachers, hospitals and museums.

Mr. Prior said that regardless of whether tariffs on China stayed at 10 percent or doubled on Tuesday, he would have to raise his prices. But the uncertainty has made it impossible to make any specific pricing decisions, he said. When he returns home from the convention this week, Mr. Prior plans to go through his products, item by item, and reassess.

“Exhaustion,” Mr. Prior said. “That’s the only way I can describe it.”

Three billion toys are sold in the United States each year, generating $42 billion in sales and supporting nearly 700,000 jobs, according to the Toy Association, a trade group representing the U.S. toy industry.

Advertisement

The association has been lobbying for an exemption from Mr. Trump’s broad tariffs, pointing in part to the fact that small businesses make up roughly 96 percent of the industry, said Greg Ahearn, the group’s chief executive. During Mr. Trump’s first term in the White House, he had imposed 10 to 25 percent tariffs on many Chinese products — but he backed down from tariffs on toys, among other consumer goods.

While most toys are made in China, some manufacturing has moved to Mexico in recent years, but Mr. Trump also said that the 25 percent tariff he had imposed on Mexico and Canada would go into effect on Tuesday.

The Toy Association has been visiting senators’ offices and pushing to get its message to people inside the Trump administration, Mr. Ahearn said, as well as communicating with its members daily to share the latest updates on tariffs.

Mr. Trump’s announcement of an additional tariff on China coincided with Mr. Ahearn’s preparations for the Toy Fair. “It wasn’t good, and now it’s unbearable for us as an industry,” Mr. Ahearn said, adding that a 20 percent tariff will inevitably be passed onto consumers.

In an interview with CNBC on Monday, the White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro, doubled down on Mr. Trump’s tariff plans, saying their effect on consumer prices would be “second order small” when taking in account the administration’s simultaneous plans to deregulate industry, reduce the size of the federal government and expand energy production.

Advertisement

“I don’t see the president wavering on any of this,” he said.

Five years ago, Sharon Azula and her husband started a company called the Tooth Brigade selling tooth-fairy pillows. Last summer, they lowered the retail price for a pillow — a small stuffed animal with a tooth pouch — to $14, down from $16, which helped boost demand.

Tariffs, especially if they amount to 20 percent, are likely to force Ms. Azula to raise prices again, since everything they sell is manufactured in China. When they started the brand, she and her husband wanted to manufacture their products in the United States, but it was too expensive, she said.

Now, motioning to a pillow at her Toy Fair booth, Ms. Azula said she was worried that higher prices could sink the business.

“When I’m here, I try not to think about it,” she said, tearing up. “But when you try to think about what the future is going to be — I don’t know. I just don’t know.”

Advertisement

Business

The War in Iran Has Upended the Global Economy. The U.S. Has Been Mostly Spared.

Published

on

The War in Iran Has Upended the Global Economy. The U.S. Has Been Mostly Spared.

The fallout from two months of war in Iran is shuttering textile mills in India and Bangladesh, grounding airplanes in Ireland, Poland and Germany, and prompting energy rationing in Vietnam, South Korea and Thailand. The only country, it seems, that has been relatively spared from the economic chaos is the one that started the war: the United States.

While warning signs of a recession are flashing across countries in Asia and Europe, the United States is likely to outperform most of the world’s advanced economies. Growth is steady and unemployment low. “It’s still hard to bet against the U.S. economy,” the Royal Bank of Canada said last week.

The United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s richest countries, with sovereign wealth funds that total more than $2 trillion, has asked the United States for a financial lifeline in the wake of missile-damaged gas fields and a halt to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

In just eight weeks — less time than it takes to age a traditional English fruitcake — the global economic outlook has been knocked sideways.

The worst economic pain will be felt in poor countries, where consumers cannot afford higher energy prices, and governments cannot afford to provide aid to offset the costs. And as financing tightens, the cost of desperately needed borrowing for these countries increases.

Advertisement

Soaring prices now for fuel and fertilizer mean higher prices for food later in the year. In Africa, “food insecurity looms large,” the International Monetary Fund said last week. In the Asia-Pacific region, millions of people are at risk of falling into poverty because of the conflict, the United Nations Development Program warned.

Already, many countries in Asia are grappling with fuel shortages, which will grow only worse as the war drags on, said Raghuram Rajan, an economist at the University of Chicago and a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

“The shortages will start hitting more and more,” said Mr. Rajan, who formerly served in a top role at the International Monetary Fund. In many countries, the real consequences are only just beginning to be felt.

Energy inventories are running out, and some shipments have stopped. “The water’s on the boil, the frog is in the water and the temperature’s rising,” Mr. Rajan said. “And now, increasingly, you’re going to see industry shut down.”

Steel plants in India and automakers in Japan have cut production because of higher energy prices and concerns about reduced demand. Toy factories in China, already suffering from U.S. tariffs, are contending with discontent from thousands of workers angry about losing their jobs.

Advertisement

One morning last week, in Firozabad, a city in northern India, workers were idly milling at an open-air labor market. “Because of the war, work has dwindled,” said Muhammad Waseem, a plasterer. He was haggling with a potential employer who wanted to pay him 500 rupees ($5.30) for a construction job, significantly less than what he usually earns.

Aas Muhammad, 25, a laborer who loads bricks and cement onto trucks, had walked five miles to the market from his home. He was willing to take the 500 rupees, but even that wouldn’t go far. A kilogram of cooking gas that would normally cost 80 rupees now costs 200.

Millions of other Indian workers who usually live and work in the Emirates and Saudi Arabia, and collectively send billions of dollars in remittances home every year, are stranded abroad without work.

Shortages of other commodities that ordinarily travel through the Strait of Hormuz, like helium, aluminum and naphtha, are affecting the supplies of a dizzying array of other goods, from condoms to microchips.

Of course, the U.S. economy isn’t entirely insulated from the shock. Gas prices have jumped more than $1 a gallon since the war began, a tax on American consumers that has hit lower-income households especially hard.

Advertisement

On Wall Street, banks have marked their growth forecasts down and their inflation forecasts up since the war began and have all but given up on the possibility of further interest rate cuts before the fall at the earliest.

Compared with the rest of the world, though, the impact on the domestic economy has been muted. Consumer spending remains strong, layoffs remain low and forecasters still expect solid growth this year.

Economists say it would take a much more significant spike in oil prices, perhaps as high as $150 a barrel, for them to begin worrying seriously about the possibility of a recession in the United States.

That is not the case elsewhere, where the dreaded combination of slower growth and higher inflation is already raising alarms about stagflation.

Around the world, scarcity and high prices are setting off a worrying cycle of reduced economic activity: High prices lower the demand for fuel, and the lower demand, in turn, shrinks production, employment and spending.

Advertisement

The German airline Lufthansa canceled 20,000 flights scheduled for this summer. As jet fuel prices have doubled, all 20 of the world’s top air carriers have cut at least some flights, according to Freightos, a digital shipping marketplace. Fewer flights cut sharply into tourism and business travel, reducing spending at hotels, restaurants and retailers.

For the United States, the biggest advantage is that, unlike most of its global peers, it produces more oil and gas than it consumes. That doesn’t mean it is unaffected by what happens in global energy markets, but it helps dampen the impact.

The U.S. economy is also heavily based on services and depends relatively little on the energy-intensive manufacturing industries that have been hit hardest by the spike in oil prices. And it went into the war with a stronger economy than many other countries, giving it more of a buffer against a slowdown.

“We’re not feeling the same pain the rest of the world is,” said Jason Bordoff, the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University.

“In a shock this large, the physical shortages are showing up in Asia, and they’re trickling through to Europe,” he added. “We’re the last to feel the effects.”

Advertisement

The toll on the U.S. economy will grow if the war drags on. Higher fuel prices will further raise the cost of shipping, and that could drive up prices for other consumer goods.

“We don’t know how long this shock will last, and I think if it persists we’ll probably be having a very different conversation six months from now,” said Ben Harris, a Brookings Institution economist who served as chief economist at the Treasury Department under the Biden administration.

Even if the war were to end tomorrow, most energy executives and political analysts doubt that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a critically important shipping lane for oil and gas, will ever return to the way it was before. The war has demonstrated how easily free passage can be stopped, raising risks and costs.

The shortfall caused by the halt in oil and gas production and the missile damage inflicted on infrastructure also mean that oil prices are likely to remain elevated or rise over the next four years, according to High Frequency Economics, a research consulting firm.

“We are more resilient to energy shocks, but I don’t think that’s going to last,” said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Advertisement

Many countries, including allies, had already been re-evaluating their relationship because of President Trump’s punitive trade policies and erratic behavior, including his demands to take over Greenland.

Now American pre-eminence has been undercut by Mr. Trump’s decision to start a war with Iran that has had severe economic consequences for much of the world, Mr. Posen said.

“As a snapshot at the moment, the U.S. is less directly troubled,” Mr. Posen added. “I wouldn’t make too much of that.”

Keith Bradsher contributed reporting from Beijing, and Alex Travelli from Firozabad, India.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Business

In a first, animated movies receive film tax credits in California

Published

on

In a first, animated movies receive film tax credits in California

Walt Disney Co.’s “Phineas and Ferb,” “The Simpsons Movie 2” and an untitled DreamWorks movie are the first animated feature films to receive a California tax credit under the state’s updated incentive program.

The movies are among the 38 projects chosen in the latest round of the production incentive program, the California Film Commission said Thursday.

In total, the productions are expected to employ more than 5,300 cast and crew members, more than 20,800 background actors and generate nearly $800 million in economic activity throughout the state.

Together, the projects will involve 1,019 shoot days, with more than 45% happening outside of the Southern California region.

“We’re seeing the real-world economic impact of this program reach communities across the entire state,” Colleen Bell, director of the California Film Commission, said in a statement. “That’s what this program is about: creating good-paying jobs and supporting local businesses, while bolstering California’s creative economy in regions across the state.”

Advertisement

In addition to Disney Entertainment Television’s “Phineas and Ferb,” which received $3.5 million in credits, and Disney-owned 20th Century Studios’ “The Simpsons Movie 2,” which was awarded $21.9 million, other awardees include Netflix’s upcoming reboot of “13 Going on 30” ($10.9 million), a film from Laverne Cox called “Black is Blue” ($1.3 million) and the Will Ferrell-produced “Self Help” ($2.6 million).

An untitled Paramount crime thriller received the highest amount — $25.9 million — while DreamWorks’ untitled animated film received $24.7 million in credit allocation.

DreamWorks Animation Chief Operating Officer Randy Lake said the tax incentive would have a “massive impact” on the film’s budget and allow the studio to hire more local talent.

Animated movies and shows became eligible for California’s film and TV tax incentive after the state bolstered its program last year. In recent years, other countries such as Ireland and Canada have added special tax incentives targeting animated projects, luring productions out of the U.S.

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Business

Confusion and Fright at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner After Shots Were Fired

Published

on

Confusion and Fright at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner After Shots Were Fired

The spring pea and burrata appetizer course had been distributed and the schmoozing hour of Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner had begun when a small commotion occurred toward the back of the Washington Hilton ballroom shortly past 8:30 p.m.

It might have been an upturned catering cart, or perhaps a scuffle with protesters. Then security officers began sprinting down the aisles toward the elevated dais, where President Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance and the first lady, Melania Trump, had taken their seats just a few minutes earlier.

There were no announcements or cries of “get down.” Instead, a sense of danger spread across the room like a wave. Hundreds of the country’s top media executives, editors in chief and prominent television anchors, clad in tuxedos and evening gowns, instinctively dropped to the floor, crouching beside chairs and ducking under tables.

A nauseous silence descended, punctuated by small gasps and whimpers. The loudest sounds were those of the security officers racing — and in some cases leaping over chairs and guests — to evacuate senior administration officials from the tightly packed ballroom.

No one had a hint as to what was going on — except that Mr. Trump had been rushed from the stage, which was now occupied by a pair of security officials brandishing large guns. (Later in the evening, officials said that an armed man had charged a security checkpoint and that a Secret Service officer had been shot.)

Advertisement

Erika Kirk, the widow of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk and a guest of Fox News, crawled beneath her table, where she was comforted by the anchor Harris Faulkner and Trey Yingst, the network’s chief foreign correspondent. From beside his chair, Brian Stelter, CNN’s media correspondent, held his iPhone aloft, recording video of whatever scenes were unfolding above.

The health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and his wife, the actress Cheryl Hines, looked pained as guards hustled them out.

Others appeared relatively unfazed. Lloyd Blankfein, the former chief executive of Goldman Sachs, was sitting with CBS News journalists toward the front of the room when the emergency occurred. As the confusion unfolded, Mr. Blankfein turned to his seatmate and asked, “Are you going to finish that salad?”

After less than five minutes, the crowd sensed that any immediate threat had passed. Guests shakily returned to their feet, some wiping away tears.

Journalists are accustomed to chronicling moments of unexpected violence, but few witness them in real time. Even as some in the room rushed toward the exits, dozens of reporters dialed law enforcement sources to figure out what had happened. Network executives and editors ordered up coverage plans. Susan Zirinsky, a veteran producer at CBS News, stood on a chair in a sparkly sequined jacket with a phone pressed to her ear.

Advertisement

Mr. Yingst, of Fox News, called into his control room to deliver on-air updates. Jacqui Heinrich, one of the network’s White House correspondents, had been seated on the dais, and she filed a report from backstage. CNN aired Mr. Stelter’s iPhone footage live. “It wasn’t until I stopped streaming half an hour later that the gravity of the moment really registered,” he said.

Politico’s editor in chief, Jonathan Greenberger, ordered several black-tie-clad reporters to commandeer a nearby banquet room as an ad hoc command center so they could quickly publish the news.

Some gallows humor emerged. “Are they bringing more Champagne?” one attendee said to a friend. But other guests were deeply upset. One woman’s hand shook as she spoke on the phone with a family member and wiped away tears.

Weijia Jiang, a CBS News correspondent who is president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, eventually retook the stage and, with some emotion in her voice, said the evening would continue, prompting loud applause. Eventually an announcement was made that the authorities preferred that the crowd depart.

By 10 p.m., the ballroom was emptying out. Hundreds of plates of half-eaten burrata lay abandoned as guests shuffled to the escalators, toward the chilly outdoor air of an unnerving and unexpected night.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending