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    HomeFashionShoe Firms, Consumers Get Big Break as Trump Extends China Tariff Deadline

    Shoe Firms, Consumers Get Big Break as Trump Extends China Tariff Deadline

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    American President Donald Trump doesn’t want to be the grinch that stole Christmas.

    On Monday, he signed an executive order that extended the Aug. 12 deadline on higher tariffs for China imports to the U.S. for another 90 days. The pause was set to expire Tuesday at midnight.

    The second extension on the bilateral tariff pause — the first 90-day pause began in May — wasn’t unexpected. Representatives for the U.S. and China were in Stockholm last month to continue trade talks and one of the agenda items was a second extension to allow for continued negotiations.

    But it seemed that Trump was going to wait until the last possible minute to disclose where he stood on the talks. He held a press conference Monday morning where he disclosed the placement of D.C. police under federal control, as well as the deployment of the National Guard, that is expected to last 30 days to implement a crackdown on crime and homelessness in the area. It was then that Trump also declined to answer a press question about the China tariff deadline.

    “We’ll see what happens,” he said, adding only that the U.S. has been “dealing very nicely with China.”

    Tariffs under the temporary pause remain at 30 percent, down from 55 percent, but could have risen to as high as 145 percent for some goods imported to the U.S. if the pause had not been extended for a second time.

    For shoe companies and consumers, the new pause is good news.

    Many firms were already shipping greater quantities of shoes to boost inventory levels ahead of possible higher tariffs if a deal couldn’t be reached. Now they don’t have to compete with other firms trying to do the same thing, a move that also has resulted in higher shipping costs as companies jostle to get their goods onto the ships ahead of competitors.

    In addition, the delay gives footwear firms more flexibility on where their goods are produced. Steven Madden Ltd. CEO Edward Rosenfeld said last month in the company’s second quarter earnings call that the company did move some production for fall back to China in cases where it would be difficult to ensure on-time delivery, product quality and/or unreasonable pricing in an alternative country.

    And while much of the holiday assortment mix are on the waters for arrival by the end of August, there’s still a selection that come in later in the season. The extension also means that footwear firms can gauge consumer reception to some styles before they chase sales through re-orders. The 90-day extension runs through Nov. 12. It also now gives shoe firms and retailers the opportunity to bring in ahead of time some of their shoe assortment mix for spring, in case the threat of higher tariffs fails to result in a new U.S.-China trade agreement.

    As for consumers, they no longer have to think about stockpiling shoe purchases in case prices jump, even though some increased costs either have or are being passed onto them incrementally as the fall season gets underway. UBS global chief economist Paul Donovan last month said the temporary global tariff pause through Aug. 1 means that consumers may not feel any major inflation spike until January 2026.

    With so much of everything produced in China, a second extension could mean that consumers may not feel a major inflation spike until late in the first quarter. Moreover, if shoe brands and retailers made wrong decisions on their assortment mix, consumers could benefit as companies do their markdowns to clear space for spring inventory.



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