Amazon backs away from plan to display tariff costs as Trump calls Bezos over "hostile" act

[midian182]

A hot potato: Amazon has backed away from a plan to show exactly how much the Trump tariffs will increase the cost of items on its Amazon Haul site. The White House had called the potential move a "hostile and political act," and the president himself called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to discuss the matter.

Amazon said it was considering the idea of listing import charges for certain products sold on its Haul spinoff site, which sells items for under $20, thereby showing customers exactly how much more they would be paying because of the tariffs. The vast majority of the goods on Amazon Haul come from China.

An Amazon source said the end of the de minimis exemption that allows US consumers to receive foreign packages valued under $800 duty-free had sparked the plan.

Trump has implemented a 145% tariff on imports from China and a 10% minimum tax on all other countries, with exemptions for smartphones, computers, semiconductors, and other electronics.

Shein and Temu, which ship items directly from China, have already announced price hikes, with Temu introducing a new import charge that is displayed at checkout.

Not surprisingly, the White House was far from pleased with the plan. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt called the move "a hostile and political act," asking "Why didn't Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?"

Leavitt also cited a 2021 report by Reuters claiming that Amazon had partnered with a "Chinese propaganda arm" that censored user reviews on its Chinese website. She added that the proposed move was "another reason why Americans should buy American."

CNBC reports that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick repeated the statement, claiming that if a company goes out of its way to "make it seem" like tariffs have caused prices to change, this is a hostile act.

"It's nonsense," he said Tuesday in a CNBC interview. "A 10% tariff is not going to change virtually any price," he added. "The only price change would be a product that we don't make here, like a mango."

A senior official phoned Trump to inform him of the story. "Of course he was pissed," one of the officials told CNN. "Why should a multibillion-dollar company pass off costs to consumers?"

Trump became personally involved, calling Bezos about the situation. "Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific," Trump told reporters. "He solved the problem very quickly. Good guy."

Amazon has stressed that listing the import charges on Haul was never rolled out or approved, and it is not going to happen.

Trump and Bezos had a tense relationship in the past. It was reported that Trump was "obsessed with Amazon" during his first term as president, calling it a "no-tax monopoly." He also repeatedly blasted the Washington Post, which Bezos owns, claiming it was a tax shelter for Amazon that printed fake news.

But the relationship appears to have thawed since then. Amazon donated $1 million to Trump's inaugural fund, and Trump recently said of Bezos, "He's 100 percent. He's been great."

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Amazon backs away from plan to display tariff costs as Trump calls Bezos over "hostile" act

 

[WhiteLeaff]

It's a good thing to show the tariffs on the product, not just for transparency, but to know who to point the finger at when prices skyrocket.

 

[gdavid65]

Of course the tariffs are going be passed onto the consumer in near full. What did they think was going to happen? And it's fair they should be able to see too.. anything else is just trying to hide how much this is going to **** over everybody.

 

[Ashford]

He clearly plans to blame the retailers for empty shelves and higher prices when fit hits the shan.

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Good and noble plans always fear truthful information on how it's going. /s

Next up: displaying sales tax at stores is Un-American.

Darkness fears the light. Politicians fear the truth!

 

[ScottSoapbox]

Actually, Trump should support showing the tariffs so his MAGA supporters can know which products to buy.

A tariff cost is literally the percent not made in America tax, so showing it helps one buy American.

 

[Dr Roboto]

F'k this administration and F'k these companies for bending the knee. Turns out Trump does understand one critical thing about business, money is king. Whoever has the ability give and take money has the power. Companies or Universities, doesn't matter, the world is driven only by money and not ethics or morals or anything of real substance. Amazon saw a possible threat to their profits by Trump, so they caved.

 

[Haaky]

Buy American???
What the heck is made in America now day???
I'll tell you, NOTHING!!!
Trump is just trying to push his "****-Tatership" to the next level.
And if you don't see that, then your either blind or stupid, or both

 

[Haaky]

Then answer me this. If Trump wants you to buy American, and bring back American manufacturing, why is all the garbage he Grifts Made in China??

He doesn't care about anyone but himself

 

[The Talking Tech]

Amazon alone could have destroyed Trump's presidency, but of course God knows what Trump offered Jeff Bezos in exchange... talking about a massive Quid-pro-quo!

 

[Rocky4040]

All retailers should band together and start showing how the tariffs are upping the prices for most things. Trump does not want us to see just how his stupid idea is basically scr*wing everyone over.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Posting tariff prices may provide you (the consumer) with an idea of how much cost has possibly gone up due to tariffs, but in the long run it's not going to matter if tariff costs are posted with an item or not. What is going to happen is that that item is going to be priced at a point that isn't acceptable for consumers and it'll sit on the shelf collecting dust.

Tariffs are going to do exactly what they were designed to do, help redistribute the manufacturing across the world. Trump's hoping a lot will come back to the States, but that is yet to be seen if that'll happen. Even if manufacturing doesn't all come back to the US we should see a good bit of it shift from China to other parts of the globe. The whole idea is to undercut China and remove it's current grasp it has on the world.

Right now China does 1/3 of the entire world's manufacturing and that needs to change because most of the world is heavily dependent on China for making things.

What if things hit the fan and war breaks out - how fast can the US create ships compared to China? How many steel mills operate in the US compared to China? How about aluminum smelters in the US compared to China?

You people need to stop crying because the prices on some stuff might be going up from China. You need to start worrying about what would happen if war broke out and the US has no way to keep up with China in production of necessary raw materials and manufacturing. Stop and actually look past your rose tinted glasses and understand the whole situation, not just your tiny personal existence. This abrupt shift will certainly impact some of us financially and that does suck, but the shitty position the previous government administrations and corporations greed has put us into over the past 60 years leaves this country vulnerable. We are currently a world super power that relies on a majority of or stuff to be created outside of the country and our place in the world won't last if we continue down this road. Any country that cannot stand on its own won't survive with how the world works - this isn't a giant utopia where everyone gets along and everything is free and no one needs to work. It's a dog eat dog world and a lot of soft, weak, crybaby people forget that.

 

[Ashford]

Posting tariff prices may provide you (the consumer) with an idea of how much cost has possibly gone up due to tariffs, but in the long run it's not going to matter if tariff costs are posted with an item or not. What is going to happen is that that item is going to be priced at a point that isn't acceptable for consumers and it'll sit on the shelf collecting dust.

Tariffs are going to do exactly what they were designed to do, help redistribute the manufacturing across the world. Trump's hoping a lot will come back to the States, but that is yet to be seen if that'll happen. Even if manufacturing doesn't all come back to the US we should see a good bit of it shift from China to other parts of the globe. The whole idea is to undercut China and remove it's current grasp it has on the world.

Right now China does 1/3 of the entire world's manufacturing and that needs to change because most of the world is heavily dependent on China for making things.

What if things hit the fan and war breaks out - how fast can the US create ships compared to China? How many steel mills operate in the US compared to China? How about aluminum smelters in the US compared to China?

You people need to stop crying because the prices on some stuff might be going up from China. You need to start worry about what would happen if war broke out and the US has no way to keep up with China in production of necessary raw materials and manufacturing. Stop and actually look past your rose tinted glasses and understand the whole situation, not just your tiny personal existence. This abrupt shift will certainly impact some of us financially and that does suck, but the shitty position the previous government administrations and corporations greed has put us into over the past 60 years leaves this country vulnerable. We are currently a world super power that relies on a majority of or stuff to be created outside of the country and our place in the world won't last if we continue down this road. Any country that cannot stand on its own won't survive with how the world works - this isn't a giant utopia where everyone gets along and everything is free and no one needs to work. It's a dog eat dog world and a lot of soft, weak, crybaby people forget that.

"Dear world, help me attack my competitor so I can rule you without any hope of resistance and continue to bully you. Thanks, the good ol' USA". ... this is why the world is collectively giving you the finger... you would do the same in our position.

 

[Athlonite69]

Tariffs are going to do exactly what they were designed to do, help redistribute the manufacturing across the world. Trump's hoping a lot will come back to the States, but that is yet to be seen if that'll happen. Even if manufacturing doesn't all come back to the US we should see a good bit of it shift from China to other parts of the globe.

99.9% of stuff will still be made in an asian country though as no one is looking to move production to the US without a whole bunch fiscal bonuses to do so so you'll just see stuff being made in India, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippine's but guess what most of those countries will still have to buy shiz from china to complete production because the shiz aint made anywhere else

 

[RudyBob]

I know who has the power

 

[Neatfeatguy]

"Dear world, help me attack my competitor so I can rule you without any hope of resistance and continue to bully you. Thanks, the good ol' USA". ... this is why the world is collectively giving you the finger... you would do the same in our position.

It's okay if you don't get it if you're not from the States. If you were in the same position, you'd have a better understanding over what the mainstream media tells you.

The US is currently a dominant force in when it comes to consumerism. Many people here want as much as they can get, as fast as they can get it for as cheap as they can get it - more, more, MORE! and now, now, NOW! This is why you see a lot of turmoil from people crying that their cheap crap from China is priced higher.

Trump, as a business man (whether you see him as a good or bad one), understands the power the US has in terms of its economic stronghold on the world. He's using that to his advantage to help right the boat more in our favor (not to just help out the country financially - hopefully - but to work on getting the US back up on it's own feet so it can support itself and not rely on other countries as much). The waters will be rough for a while, not just for the US, but for many other countries around the world as they try to adapt.

Have you ever seen how stupid and entitled so many people are in the US? Many people here have become soft, they want more for less and they want to do less to get more and when that is threatened they become belligerent and lash out. What these people don't get is the US is in a bad spot right now and Trump is hoping to correct a lot of these glaring issues with the US; return more manufacturing here so we can be less reliant on other countries, not getting gouged by 70% of the rest of the world when it comes to trade deals, not allowing China to continue to hold a power position in manufacturing over the world and the list goes on.

The problem is, over the past 5-6 decades the corporate and government greed here has allowed the US's manufacturing to leave while we let our consumerism skyrocket. If we are unable to stand on our own, the country will eventually fall and when it does it'll be a massive downward spiral for the whole world. There needs to be better balance achieved in the States and no other administration has tried to do this for a very long time, to actually put the US citizens first over the rest of the world.

 

[Eldrach]

Posting tariff prices may provide you (the consumer) with an idea of how much cost has possibly gone up due to tariffs, but in the long run it's not going to matter if tariff costs are posted with an item or not. What is going to happen is that that item is going to be priced at a point that isn't acceptable for consumers and it'll sit on the shelf collecting dust.

Tariffs are going to do exactly what they were designed to do, help redistribute the manufacturing across the world. Trump's hoping a lot will come back to the States, but that is yet to be seen if that'll happen. Even if manufacturing doesn't all come back to the US we should see a good bit of it shift from China to other parts of the globe. The whole idea is to undercut China and remove it's current grasp it has on the world.

Right now China does 1/3 of the entire world's manufacturing and that needs to change because most of the world is heavily dependent on China for making things.

What if things hit the fan and war breaks out - how fast can the US create ships compared to China? How many steel mills operate in the US compared to China? How about aluminum smelters in the US compared to China?

You people need to stop crying because the prices on some stuff might be going up from China. You need to start worrying about what would happen if war broke out and the US has no way to keep up with China in production of necessary raw materials and manufacturing. Stop and actually look past your rose tinted glasses and understand the whole situation, not just your tiny personal existence. This abrupt shift will certainly impact some of us financially and that does suck, but the shitty position the previous government administrations and corporations greed has put us into over the past 60 years leaves this country vulnerable. We are currently a world super power that relies on a majority of or stuff to be created outside of the country and our place in the world won't last if we continue down this road. Any country that cannot stand on its own won't survive with how the world works - this isn't a giant utopia where everyone gets along and everything is free and no one needs to work. It's a dog eat dog world and a lot of soft, weak, crybaby people forget that.

Nothing of what you wrote made any sense. You can’t afford to produce 1/10 of the products you import. American made will be double the price in most cases. You’re not crying now - but if this continues you will. You don’t build factories in 2 months - would take 20 years to build the appropriate infrastructure - which is 5 administration elections.
Most of these changes won’t last past the next presidental period

 

[Coisa]

In 1933 German law firms and corporations acquiesced to Adolf's demands, thinking his demands would be be appeased. How did that turn out? Be afraid, be very very afraid.

 

[Xelions]

made in India, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines

Agreed. And that's what has happened in the past. Certain manufacturing has simply moved out of China elsewhere and NOT the US.a!

I know who has the power

my f#*king Aunt!

In 1933 German law firms and corporations acquiesced to Adolf's demands, thinking his demands would be be appeased. How did that turn out? Be afraid, be very very afraid.

A lot more sh#* is made now than 1930-1940s. You can't unhinged Globalisation in 4 years let alone a decade. Sh#* takes time and Trumps a m0r0n for not knowing that - I'd rather see focus on what's doable and get that sh#* going than f#*king with US.a citizens, small businesses and stock markets and destroying the people, where by he should be serving them.

 

[tragicallyhip]

Honestly, if anyone orders off Amazon and still cant figure out the *why* of high prices from China on their own, they are dumb as sh*t and have no reason to live.

 

[Xelions]

Firstly, A king has his reign, and then he dies. It's inevitable. That is natural order of things.

The US.a can't be a leader forever. You guys will take a step back at some point and someone else will take a step forward!

Tariffs are going to do exactly what they were designed to do, help redistribute the manufacturing across the world. Trump's hoping a lot will come back to the States, but that is yet to be seen if that'll happen. Even if manufacturing doesn't all come back to the US we should see a good bit of it shift from China to other parts of the globe. The whole idea is to undercut China and remove it's current grasp it has on the world.

Right now China does 1/3 of the entire world's manufacturing and that needs to change because most of the world is heavily dependent on China for making things.

Don't know where to start. Your logic is so bad! Good f#*king luck getting anything going. If you knew how businesses operate, with regards to products, services, logistics, supply chains, etc you'd know that you can't just get up and change this sh#* in 4 years. Your better off playing the lottery, better odds! You need lots of money, to invest in the infrastructure, skills, people, supply chains, resources, equipment, etc.

What if things hit the fan and war breaks out - how fast can the US create ships compared to China? How many steel mills operate in the US compared to China? How about aluminum smelters in the US compared to China?

You people need to stop crying because the prices on some stuff might be going up from China. You need to start worrying about what would happen if war broke out and the US has no way to keep up with China in production of necessary raw materials and manufacturing. Stop and actually look past your rose tinted glasses and understand the whole situation, not just your tiny personal existence. This abrupt shift will certainly impact some of us financially and that does suck, but the shitty position the previous government administrations and corporations greed has put us into over the past 60 years leaves this country vulnerable

If a war breaks out, a few nukes either side, your dead, I'm dead - who the f#*k gives a f#*k about manufacturing this isn't 1945! Everyone has nukes. You think if you wipe out someones fleet of ships they're not gonna send their nukes. Some of these leaders are old as ****. They got nothing to lose!

 

[mbk34]

It's a shame, I actually had a lot of respect for Bezos for doing this. After all, it's only telling the truth and informing the consumer. If Trump wants to tax you guys more and he's hitting other countries that's up to him. It just seems weird you guys don't understand who's paying these tariffs.

It's a lot like McCarthyism all over again, with Trump pointing at people and calling them communist if he doesn't like them. But isn't it Trump who's currently in bed with Russia and North Korea? Weren't they the only ones that didn't get tariffs?

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Firstly, A king has his reign, and then he dies. It's inevitable. That is natural order of things.

The US.a can't be a leader forever. You guys will take a step back at some point and someone else will take a step forward!



Don't know where to start. Your logic is so bad! Good f#*king luck getting anything going. If you knew how businesses operate, with regards to products, services, logistics, supply chains, etc you'd know that you can't just get up and change this sh#* in 4 years. Your better off playing the lottery, better odds! You need lots of money, to invest in the infrastructure, skills, people, supply chains, resources, equipment, etc.



If a war breaks out, a few nukes either side, your dead, I'm dead - who the f#*k gives a f#*k about manufacturing this isn't 1945! Everyone has nukes. You think if you wipe out someones fleet of ships they're not gonna send their nukes. Some of these leaders are old as ****. They got nothing to lose!

Wow. You just come out swinging and hurling assumptions of others to make you sound important, like you have any clue what others know or don't know.

You seem happy if the US would fall. If it does there would be a very large shift in political alliances, massive disruption of trade between countless countries - just to name a couple things right off the top of my head.

It would be 4-10 years for things to happen for manufacturing to get moved from one country to another. 4 years is very fast that a few large corporations could certainly make happen. Realistically it would be closer to 6-8 years for most. Not only do you need to (most likely) build a new factory, but you need to adjust many other things ranging from training new people (or moving current employees - whichever would be easier or more financially feasible), work on getting equipment moved or built, work on re-routing your supply chains or finding new ones and the list goes on.

Thank you for assuming I have no idea how it would work, I'm so glad you're here to help me! /s

No one (that doesn't profit from it) wishes for war. If it were to happen hopefully it doesn't just, as you seem to think it will, be the push of a nuclear button and end things for billions of people. If that's not the case then yes, manufacturing is very important and to laugh it off as not then you're either misinformed or uneducated about it.

 

[dirtyferret]

All retailers should band together and start showing how the tariffs are upping the prices for most things. Trump does not want us to see just how his stupid idea is basically scr*wing everyone over.

his followers are nitwits
they hate taxes so let's change the word to tariffs and all the sudden they are like "tariffs are cool, so much better than getting taxed on import buys"

 

[Dr Roboto]

It's okay if you don't get it if you're not from the States. If you were in the same position, you'd have a better understanding over what the mainstream media tells you.
.........

It seems that you have a simplistic idea of the US consumer, the complexities of global manufacturing and trade, and tariffs. There is some truth to what you stated, but it is overly simplistic and naive.

1) There is absolutely more to life than stuff, I would guess that most people agree. However, wanting more and cheaper stuff is not inherently a bad thing. Americans are notoriously committed workers that work quite hard for their paychecks. If all of that work comes with a good paycheck and you want to use that to create a more comfortable life or have access to more things to balance out your "work hard, play hard" life, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. To imply Americans as anything else, then you can go right f-k off.

2) The US moved away from manufacturing because it was the natural evolution of things. We are the absolute dominate player in engineering, IP, and services. Some how this part always gets forgotten when talking about trade an tariffs. We transitioned from the dull, dirt, and dangerous manufacturing jobs that pay like crap for a reason. The US put a large focus on education and innovation and that transition really is what made us the world power that we are today, both in government (DoD) and commercial. There was great article/survey the other week that said something like 80% of Americans thought that the US need manufacturing to come back, BUT only 10% said they would actually want to work those jobs. Actually, as China has become more advanced even they are starting to get out of certain manufacturing area because the works is better done in other countries like India.

3) Trump does not understand any of this. He just sees the trivial data that we import more physical things then we export. Our services export more than makes up for any goods that we import. He has no master plan to balance out the manufacturing throughout the world so that we are not so highly reliant on a single country for 50% of our stuff. You are delusional if you actually think that. You are just trying to find a pattern in the chaos. Manufacturing is not coming back to America now matter what he says, even what little does will be mostly automated. The idea that he is doing this to bring back jobs is a farce. We may get lucky and we will see some more dispersion of manufacturing outside of China, and yes, that would be a good thing. But to think for one moment that this is Trump's plan is laughable.

4) The fact that Trump is attacking academia is proof he doesn't really understand what powers America. Federally funded research is the absolute bedrock that built America. Corporations are driven by profit and share holders and not the betterment of the US. Federally funded projects, a sizeable portion of which is supporting universities and their research, exist to make America a better place. There is no internet, satellites, GPS, etc. without it.

I could go on an on about how naive your thought process is. I appreciate you looking on the bright side. Needless to say, even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then, and Trump's approach will have some positive side effects. However, the overall chaos and disenfranchisement of all of our global partners and American citizens massively overshadows any of it.