US President Donald Trump on Saturday warned retail giant Walmart that it should stop “trying to blame” tariffs imposed by his administration on imported goods as the retailer is poised to increase the prices of products later this month. Trump said Walmart should “eat the tariffs” instead of blaming duties.
The comments by the US president came after the world’s largest retailer said that it would start increasing the prices of products by May end due to high tariffs. Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon said the proposed price increase was a result of Trump’s tariffs being “too high,” especially with Chinese goods.
In a social media post, Trump while targeting Walmart said “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected.”
The Republican president further added “Between Walmart and China they should, as is said, ‘EAT THE TARIFFS,’ and not charge valued customers anything.”
Amid criticism over price rise, Walmart said that it has always tried to keep the prices of products as low as possible and would continue the practice. “We’ll keep prices as low as we can for as long as we can given the reality of small retail margins,” the company said in a statement to Reuters.
US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick echoed President Trump’s comments on CNN’s “State of the Union” when he said that businesses and countries primarily eat the tariff.
Several US companies have cut their expectations for the current financial year due to the trade war between the US and its trading partner, particularly China.
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Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on almost all its trading partners across the globe by imposing 10%-50% tariffs on goods being imported to America. The tariff announcement was later suspended for three months, but levies on China, a whopping 145% continued.
The US and China last week held a meeting in Geneva to de-escalate the trade tensions and lower tariff charges on each other as China had also imposed a 125% tariff on US products.
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