President Donal Trump’s trade war with China is making Christmas lights more expensive.
President Donald Trump’s trade war with China has a new casualty: Christmas.
Specifically, Christmas lights.
Trump’s $200 billion in tariffs on imported Chinese products include new taxes on nearly all holiday lights sold in the United States, according to Americans for Free Trade, an advocacy group campaigning against the tariffs.
The vast majority of those little lights that many Americans string across their homes and Christmas trees during the holidays — about 85 percent — come from China. In September, the administration added a 10 percent tariff on holiday lights made in China, making them more expensive for stores like Target and Walmart to buy.
Which means Christmas shoppers might end up paying more for them, too.
In January, a whopping 25 percent tariff goes into effect on top of the 10 percent tariff. Meaning next Christmas will be even more expensive if Trump is still waging his trade war.
Holiday lights are among dozens of Chinese goods Trump has hit with tariffs this year, a move intended to punish China for unfair trade practices. But the strategy is backfiring.
Over the past year, the US has placed about $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, in part to make Chinese products more expensive so Americans don’t buy them (and, ideally, buy American-made products instead). The administration has also placed steep tariffs on all imported steel, angering other major US trade partners.
