This post was originally published on The Economic Times
For Travis McMaster, the general manager of Cocoon USA, an outdoor and travel brand, ordering products from his foreign suppliers this year has been a lot like gambling.
After reading the news of a trade truce between the United States and China last week, McMaster was relieved to have finally gotten a win. He estimated that President Donald Trump‘s decision to lower tariffs on Chinese products would save him roughly $30,000 in tariff costs on a shipment the company has coming in from China this week — enough to perhaps hire another seasonal employee in the small Washington town where Cocoon is based.
But the tariff deal came with a downside. Cocoon had begun shifting some production to India this spring to avoid high tariffs on China. But in the past few months, Trump has raised tariffs on India by 50%, while dropping tariffs on Cocoon’s Chinese goods to 30%, scrambling the company’s plans.
McMaster lamented the time he had spent on building up production in India. At least for the time being, he said, “I’m not going to spend any more
— Read the rest of this post, which was originally published on The Economic Times.
