President-elect Trump is promising major tariffs that could impact retailers and their consumers.
A tariff is a tax placed on goods when they cross national borders.
Trump has said all U.S. trading partners could face tariffs of up to 20%. He's said goods from China could be levied at 60% — or higher — on some specific products.
"I will impose whatever tariffs are required — 100%, 200%, 1,000%," Trump said of some Chinese imports during an event in October.
The potential for these tariffs is already having some retailers rethink their business, and it could mean consumers paying higher prices.
"It's not a one size fits all situation with this," said Bill Reinsch, Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Each company, each retailer is going to decide what it wants to do for itself. Sometimes, they'll choose to eat part of the tariff. In other words, absorb some of the increased price and simply have a lower profit margin in order to maintain their market share. But most of the time, they pass part, if not all of it, onto the consumer."
Walmart's chief financial officer John David Rainey told CNBC if Trump's tariffs take effect "there probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers."
Lowe's CEO Marvin Ellison also addressed the topic on the company's earnings call on Tuesday.
"Like everyone, we're waiting to see what happens when the Trump administration actually takes office in January," Ellison said. "Having said that, we feel good about the processes and the systems we put in place since the first Trump administration to manage tariffs or other challenges."
The Home Depot told Scripps News it's following this situation to see how it could impact its business.
"It's too early to speculate, but tariffs would impact our industry more broadly," The Home Depot said in a statement to Scripps. "The majority of our goods are sourced in the U.S. While the remaining products are not all sourced from Asia, we do source from several Asian countries, so we are watching this issue closely. Our teams have been through this before and we anticipate that we will manage through any new tariffs similarly to how we have done so in the past."
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Trump sees tariffs as having two purposes — raising revenue for the government and taking money from other countries. The Tax Foundation estimates a 20% tariff on all goods would raise $3.3 trillion for the federal government from 2025 through 2034.
The Peterson Institute for International Economics projects Trump's tariff plan could cost the average U.S. household $2,600 per year.
