U.S. Manufacturing Won’t Thrive Because of Trump Tariffs, CEO Says

Timothy Boyle, the billionaire CEO of publicly traded apparel giant Columbia Sportswear, believes the central argument made by President-elect Donald Trump in favor of new tariffs is flawed, Carl Gibson reported for AlterNet.

Boyle argued that higher tariffs imposed by Trump would hurt his customers rather than exporters.

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Trump has proposed tariffs of 25% on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, and 10% on Chinese imports. In October, Trump told Bloomberg Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait that he anticipated a boom in US manufacturing as companies reevaluated their strategies due to the new tariffs.

However, Boyle stated that Trump lacks a fundamental understanding of how corporations operate globally.

In an interview with CNN, Boyle explained that his company is one of the "largest duty payers and tariff payers in the US." He argued that higher tariffs imposed by Trump would hurt his customers rather than exporters.

"We're used to dealing with significant tariffs. They have not driven production into the US, even though some tariffs are as high as 40%," Boyle said.

"So we don't think there's going to be any movement to build products that we sell in the US. There will just be higher prices for consumers."

Boyle noted that over the last 50 years, "nearly 100%" of apparel and footwear manufacturing has moved to Asia.

He attributed this shift to lower labor costs, advanced textile-processing technology, and the "art of tailoring" being concentrated in Asian countries. He emphasized that the profit margins his company and others rely on do not allow for absorbing the cost of new tariffs.

"Today, consumers are paying the tariffs when they buy products made offshore, as these costs are included in the price of the products," Boyle said. "The costs will continue to be passed on to the consumer, just as they are today."