Good news for parents and fans of toys. The USA will delay new tariffs on China-made goods that include toys. This means they won’t get more expensive.
The initial proposal was to add a 10% tariff to the goods from September 1st, 2019. The USTR latest statement though says that the tariffs on “certain toys” won’t go into effect from that date, CNBC reports.
Instead, the new date is December 15th, 2019 at the earliest. There’s now a possibility that the tariff will be completely removed. The USTR said the decision was due to “health, safety, national security and other factors.”
As you can expect, toy companies are quite happy about the decision. Mattel and Hasbro both surged on the stock market after the news.
“We appreciate the Administration listening to our concerns through the United States Trade Representative comment and hearing process, and applaud today’s announcement that tariffs on toys will be delayed until mid-December,′ Hasbro said. “We believe this will help mitigate the impact on U.S. consumers this holiday season, and we value the additional time this provides our company to make further progress on our global sourcing plans.”
Mattel hasn’t commented on the matter yet. For sure though the company is happy as September is a key month for the toy industry. Many new toys start to ship from that month so that they are in the stores in time for the holiday shopping.
