NEW YORK (AP) — Sending children back to school in new sneakers, jeans and T-shirts is likely to cost U.S. families significantly more this fall if the bespoke tariffs President Donald Trump put on leading exporters take effect as planned, American industry groups warn.

About 97% of the clothes and shoes purchased in the U.S. are imported, predominantly from Asia, the American Apparel & Footwear Association said, citing its most recent data. Walmart, Gap Inc., Lululemon and Nike are a few of the companies that have a majority of their clothing made in Asian countries.

Those same garment-making hubs took a big hit under the president’s plan to punish individual countries for trade imbalances. For all Chinese goods, that meant tariffs of at least 54%. He set the import tax rates for Vietnam and neighboring Cambodia at 46% and 49%, and products from Bangladesh and Indonesia at 37% and 32%.

Working with foreign factories has kept labor costs down for U.S. companies in the fashion trade, but neither they nor their overseas suppliers are likely to absorb new costs that high. India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka also got slapped with high tariffs so aren’t immediate sourcing alternatives.

  • @rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works
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    109 days ago

    I don’t think I can even buy US made workwear anymore. I used to buy Carhartt but then they went overseas and started using different fabric for the duck pants so I buy Dickies now because they are made in Mexico and are just as good, IMO.

  • @kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Why do we keep picking random things to point out that tariffs will effect their price. The tariffs will effect almost everything’s price. Even if things are made in America, very few things are made with 100% American resources, meaning at least some materials, parts, and assembly will be done outside the US and be subject to Tariffs. And even if the thing is 100% American made, when all the competition has to raise prices, guess what they will do too. Nearly nothing will be unaffected by tariffs.

    • It seems basically equivalent to inflation which we’re quite familiar with because we just went through a huge bump in inflation. The scary thing about that is that I noticed while many people’s jobs started to make at least some competitive adjustments in pay for inflation, others did not. I worry that those of us that didn’t see any income adjustment in the previous round will feel this next wave even harder.

    • @Stamau123@lemmy.worldOP
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      39 days ago

      It’s why I bought all the canned goods and clothes I could from costco this week. It’s the last of good prices, and they weren’t even that good.

  • Admiral Patrick
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    449 days ago

    At least during the Great Depression, you could make clothes from feed sacks. We don’t even have that this time.

    • @UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      449 days ago

      We have a superabundance of clothes. People have enormous closets full of lightly worn clothing. We build entire second and third iteration storefronts for outlets and second hand clothing. We have so much extra clothing that we regularly give it away for free.

      Of all the things to worry about the US running short on, cloths shouldn’t be anywhere near the top of the list.

      People who lack clothing aren’t short on cheap clothing, they’re short on homes to keep their seasonal wear.

      • @CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        169 days ago

        Yep. Anyone see all the clothes and shoes floating around in the sea from the secondary market in that movie “Buy Now”?

        I went to a thrift store recently and the amount of clothes there that looked nearly-new…it was crazy. Went to an army surplus store today and the used stuff was pretty well constructed and priced fairly well. Some of the new stuff they had was kind of on the high end, but didn’t seem to be hit by tariffs yet.

      • Yeah there’s not really a need for new clothes for most people. Unless you are me and you have a shit tonne of clothes from middle school and highschool that are theoretically wearable but I should really just fucken donate.

  • Low quality fast fashion clothes are a perfect example Of what would be GOOD to put tariffs on.we need to discourage them.

    Steel, computer chips, major resources that are only obtainable from other countries and will have chain reactions in supply chains is what’s going to cause all of the causes.

  • /home/pineapplelover
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    39 days ago

    I’m actually good with not buying things made from child labour. I just bought some altras, I forgot to check where the shoes are made in but I believe the company is australian and goodonyou.eco said they’re an ok company

  • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    29 days ago

    So they end up either paying more from tariffs or paying more from wages being higher because the things are made in the US instead of Asia. The only way all that shit doesn’t lead to a ton of inflation is by giving the same wage as in Asia to people in the USA and then it’s the real estate market that will crash instead.