Vietnam seems to be a big winner of the US-China trade war. This report from Tamron (lens manufacturer) shows it plans to decrease the China portion of its “production ratio” from 65% to 45% between now and 2028, while increasing the Vietnam portion from 25% to 45%.
tags: tariffs photography
posted by matt in Sunday, May 4, 2025
Amazon apparently plans to "show how much Trump’s tariffs are adding to the price of each product" in its massive online store. (NOTE: I have not been able to verify that Amazon actually made such an announcement; the linked page appears to be the only source reporting it, and attributes it only to "a person familiar with the plan".).
The White House characterized this as a "a hostile and political act by Amazon", which I suppose makes sense when your negotiation strategy is built on the creation of strategic uncertainty.
Maybe Trump forgot to sign the Elmer Fudd Executive Order telling all of us, including Amazon: "Shhh, be vewy, vewy quiet."
tags: politics economy tech amazon tariffs
postposted by matt in Tuesday, April 29, 2025
"In game theory, it's called strategic uncertainty, so you're not going to tell the person on the other side of the negotiation where you're going to end up," Bessent told ABC's "This Week" news program.
"'Nobody is better at creating this leverage than President Trump,' the treasury secretary added."
Well, Bessent has a defensible point there.
tags: economy politics tariffs
posted by matt in Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Q: Please talk about the status of the price increase. If additional tariffs are passed on to product prices, how much of a price increase will we see in the end market?
A: We have notified major dealers that we will raise prices and are in the process of estimating the timing and amount of the increase.
This is a quote from the Q&A following Canon's announcement of its 2025 Q1 financial results. I thought this particular question, and Canon's answer, provides a succinct reminder of how tariffs actually work — producers raise prices to cover the tariff, and consumers pay more. Period.
But, hey, they protect the domestic camera manufacturers, right?
tags: photography tariffs
posted by matt in Sunday, April 27, 2025