The Trump administration announced this week that it will impose a 20 percent tariff on the first 1.2 million imported large residential washing machines over the next year and a 50 percent tariff on each additional machine.
Goldman Sachs is now forecasting an 8 to 20 percent increase in the price of a new washing machine as a result of this decision. "This calculation assumes that tariff costs will be partly absorbed by international suppliers and/or offset by other operational or supply chain initiatives which would impact the flow through from tariffs to domestic pricing," Goldman analyst Samuel Eisner wrote, per CNBC.
Whirlpool's rivals were disappointed with Trump's decision, arguing that the market should be the ultimate determinant of prices. "We are very disappointed in this misguided decision, which far exceeds what the expert agency recommended," said LG on Tuesday. "This is a textbook case about how certain companies can game the process to use trade laws to try to accomplish what they can't accomplish in the marketplace."
