The officials surrounding Donald Trump They have not taken into account that after the application of the new Politics of United States Tariffsvery popular consumer products such as coffee and the tea They were taxed with taxes.
A real nonsense, because that country has no scale production of those infusions, which has to import. And what Trump does not remember is that Infusions are very important to be American national. In fact, The war of independence of the colonies broke out when the King of England wanted to put a tea tax.
Beyond those details that may be unusual, the United States economy has so far behaved as a formidable Machine to generate companies and jobsbecause its matrix is linked to imports.
Much of the new businesses that are mounted in that country, are evaluated taking into account international supplies chains, that usually provide cheap supplies that derive in low prices.
Disassemble that economic model to replace it with another that seeks to have most of the suppliers within the territory itself could take years or even faileither because it is unfeasible or because in the end the public can be put against government policy.
US businessmen on tariff alert
In that sense, the founder of ADCAP Grupo Financiero, Javier Timerman, One of the Argentines who best knows the capital markets of the United States, cites on their social networks the experience of a very successful investor in Startup companies. His name is Bill Ackman, CEO of the Pershing Square companywho describes how projects are turned off after the start of Trump’s commercial war.
“I am receiving an increasing amount of emails and text messages from small businesses with which I do business or in which I have invested, that They express their fear that they will not be able to transfer the increase in costs to their clients and will suffer seriously negative consequences ”says the investor.
ACKMAN cites the case of an entrepreneur who launched a line of cold drinks based on coffee: “Despite our efforts to mitigate the risk, the New rates have immediate and significant negative implications for our cost structure and have the potential to compress our gross margin in more than 60%. Coffee and glass bottles represent the highest percentage of the cost of the goods sold (COG) and will be affected by the following recently applied tariffs, ”says the text.
According to the entrepreneur’s description, the tariff rise impacted him as follows:
- Increase in 50% in the cost of glass bottles (from China)
- Increase in 26 % in the cost of the chai (from India)
- Increase in 10% in the cost of coffee (from Ethiopia, Peru and Canada)
The company, called Explorer Cold Brew, He states that “it will reduce our gross gain by almost 60% to a gross margin of approximately 12% (30%)” and states that it cannot raise prices because it is already in the upper range, which would make it look out of play.
The businessman adds that “What is particularly worrying is the sudden and generalized inclusion of coffee and tea in American tariffswhich reverses a long -standing precedent that goes back to the McKinley tariff of 1890, which eliminated tariffs on these essential products. “And says that Trump’s commercial war” represents an existential threat to explore Cold Brew and other special drink producers. “
A SME that cannot raise prices or pay higher wages
Similarly, Ackman presents the case of another businessman who is dedicated to offering Audio and video solutions.
“Almost no company can move a massive increase in costs to its customers overnight, and I fear that this could be what devastating enough to leave me without business, ”says the businessman.
And he adds: “My clients will tolerate that their contractual costs are almost completely doubled overnight, Or will they wait for me to absorb the increases with which my suppliers are already threatening? ”
“If customers resist price increases and My employees demand higher salaries To compensate for the growing cost of living, we end in a scenario of all losing: without expenses and without jobs ”, Ackman quotes regarding the entrepreneurs who have been supporting with their investments.
Source: Ambito
