As American farmers and automakers begin to realize the toll President Trump’s tariffs will have on their livelihoods, one businessperson is likely resting easy: Ivanka Trump.
That’s because her father’s tariffs on Chinese goods will not apply to her products.
On Friday, President Trump enacted an additional 25 percent tariff on $34 billion of Chinese imports ranging from medical devices to airplanes. Not included: Clothing and footwear, the backbone of the Ivanka Trump brand.
In Sichuan province, Chengdu Kameido Shoes, a past Ivanka Trump supplier, has put in a bid to make 140,000 pairs of new Ivanka Trump shoes, the South China Morning Post reported. Hangzhou HS Fashion in Zhejiang province provides products to the G-III Apparel Group, which supplies shoes to the Ivanka Trump brand.
About a third of apparel and 72 percent of footwear sold in the U.S. is made in China.
According to Politico, all of Ivanka Trump branded clothes and shoes were made in China as of January 2017, when some manufacturing may have moved to Indonesia, South Korea and Vietnam. But it’s become increasingly difficult to track shipments from the brand, which could be traveling to the U.S. under code names, says Chris Rogers of Panjiva, a global trade data tracking company headquartered in New York.
Meanwhile, China has slapped retaliatory tariffs on American goods including seafood, soybeans, dairy products, cars, apples, whiskey and cigarettes. Farmers worry they won’t be able to sell goods to China at the same volume in the past, and that other suppliers will sweep in and take their share of that market for good.
“Soybeans are the top agriculture export for the United States, and China is the top market for purchasing those exports,” said Iowa soybean grower John Heisdorffer in a statement. “The math is simple. You tax soybean exports at 25 percent, and you have serious damage to U.S. farmers.”
