The Directors General of Walmart and Target warned President Trump this week that his radical tariff policy could disrupt the supply chains and lead to empty shelves in the coming weeks, familiar sources with the White House meeting in CBS News said.
The CEO of Home Depot was also present at the door meeting on Monday. Axios was the first to report on the warnings of retail managers to Mr. Trump.
Target and Walmart refused to comment on specific warnings.
After their meeting with Trump on Monday, the two companies published statements.
“We had a productive meeting with President Trump and his team and appreciated the opportunity to share our ideas,” Walmart said in a statement.
Target, in a similar statement, said: “We had a productive meeting with President Trump and our retail peers to discuss the way to trade, and we remain determined to bring value to American consumers”.
The two retailers have publicly warned that Mr. Trump’s prices could lead to higher prices. A few weeks after Mr. Trump’s electoral victory, Walmart’s financial director John David Rainey told CNBC: “We never want to increase prices”, but “there will probably be cases where prices will increase for consumers”.
And last month, Target CEO, Brian Cornell, told CNBC, “the consumer will probably see price increases over the next two days” from prices planned for imports from Mexico, noting that Target is based heavily on Mexican products to store its grocery shelves in winter.
The Trump administration has imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese products and 10% prices on most other countries. Mr. Trump also announced “reciprocal prices” on dozens of other American trade partners earlier this month, but a break from most non -Chinese samples for 90 days.
Import rights have shaken the markets in recent weeks and aroused fears On the rise in consumer prices, slower economic growth and deficits of the supply chain. The Trump administration has planned to form a working group to manage all strains on supply chains caused by Chinese prices, CBS News reported last week.
Trump has supported his pricing strategy, throwing it as a way to stimulate American manufacturing and flourish what he considers to be unfair commercial practices – but he said that he would like to negotiate new trade agreements with other countries. The president told journalists on Tuesday that he expects the 145% tariffs of China “to fall considerably, but it will not be zero.”
End Daniel Gómez
