Last Updated 7 days by Amnon J. Jobi | Amnon Front Page
This coming Mothers Day may be your last chance to gift jewelry tariff-free. The jewelry brand Pandora, known for its charm bracelets, warned that proposed tariff hikes could raise prices on affordable jewelry across the board.
Pandora is heavily dependent on manufacturing in Thailand, Vietnam, India, and China. Its CEO, Alexander Lacik, told CNBC that current 10% levies on U.S. imports were manageable, but if tariffs revert to President Donald Trumps reciprocal rates, ranging from 26% to 46%, that would be a game changer for the industry.
Most jewelers that are in the price segment where we operate, they all import from somewhere in Asia. So you could have an argument: if these tariffs remain, then its going to be more expensive for everybody that plays, Lacik said. Therefore we should expect that the consumer pricing will see some change to it.”
The president announced a 90-day pause for most countries except China. Its unclear what rates countries will face once that pause is lifted in early July.
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That is partially why Lacik was unable to put an exact number on potential price increases for consumers.
We can all speculate: is it going to be the 34% or 40%, he said. Weve done a number of different scenarios. But we dont operate in isolation, so we need to see a little bit what the rest of the industry does.
While President Trump has stated that tariffs would help bring manufacturing jobs to the U.S., Lacik told CNBC his company is not interested in expanding manufacturing domestically, adding that prices would be dramatically higher if it shifted manufacturing to the U.S.
I employ up to 15,000 craftspeople in Thailand, he told CNBC. I cant find that amount of talent that actually has this craft experience in the U.S. So its actually not so much a matter of cost to begin with; its about having skilled people who can actually craft the jewelry.
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