Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly said tariffs could lead to price hikes for consumers, during an Aug. 28 earnings call after reporting results for the company's Q2 ended Aug. 4 that was accompanied by a stock decline. “When there’s a price increase, there’s an impact,” he said, though the Trump administration has “very important international trade goals.” Effects from tariffs will be “tightly linked” to gross profit margins, Joly said. A 25 percent tariff on an item with a gross profit of 20 percent will result in a 20 percent price increase, the executive said. He mentioned vendors’ ability to absorb tariffs and over time to diversify their supply bases. The retailer's Q2 online sales growth slowed to 10 percent following 31 percent sales growth in the year-ago quarter over the prior-year quarter, said Chief Financial Officer Corie Barry, underscoring the retailer’s “mature” position in e-commerce. It's gaining market share online, Barry said, now at 15 percent of domestic revenue.

Imports at the major U.S. retail container ports set record highs in June and July and appear poised to set a third in August, the National Retail Federation said in an Aug. 9 news release. It’s all the result of retail sales rising and retailers “rushing to bring merchandise into the country” ahead of the proposed Section 301 tariffs on $200 billion worth of products from China, NRF said. “Tariffs on most consumer products have yet to take effect but retailers appear to be getting prepared before that can happen,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president-supply chain and customs policy. “We’re seeing new record levels every month this summer. Much of that is to meet consumer demand as tax reform and a thriving economy drive retail sales, but part of it seems to be concern over what’s to come. The good news for consumers is that avoiding tariffs holds off price increases that will inevitably come if the reckless and misguided trade war is allowed to continue.” U.S. ports handled 1.85 million 20-foot-long cargo containers or their equivalents in June, a 7.8 percent increase from the same month a year earlier, NRF said, citing its own Global Port Tracker report. It estimates ports handled 1.88 million containers in July, a 4.4 percent increase year-over-year, and forecasts August container imports will be up 4.4 percent to 1.91 million, it said. “The volatility and non-fact-based decisions coming from Washington have created uncertainty" in the retail sector, said Hackett Associates, the contractor that compiled the port-tracking statistics for NRF.

WiseTech Global acquired Taric, a customs management solutions company in Spain, WiseTech said in a news release. “Strengthening our presence across manufactured global trade routes is a central part of our growth strategy and Spain is a key European market for us, said WiseTech CEO Richard White. "In joining the WiseTech Global family, the powerhouse Taric team bring[s] Spanish customs capability, and tariff and regulatory expertise across Europe where its customs classification services have been widely used." Terms of the deal weren't released.

BluJay Solutions acquired Grosvenor International Systems, a customs and compliance solutions company for UK and European markets, BluJay said in a news release. Grosvenor "is a great match for BluJay’s global single-window Customs platform," said Lorenzo Rossetti, Grosvenor’s customs development director. "Our technology is modern and flexible, which will allow for rapid integration. In the UK, 80 percent of import customs declarations are ‘self-filed’ away from the border by importers or customs brokers, allowing for speedy movement of goods through the port/airport. We generate approximately 35 percent of those self-filed declarations in the UK, so you know our system and processes are rock-solid.”

Tariffs "show up as a tax on the consumer and wind up resulting in lower economic growth” that can sometimes bring about "significant risk of unintended consequences,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in Q&A on the company’s quarterly earnings call on July 31. Several trade agreements “are in need of modernizing,” but in most situations, “tariffs are not the approach to doing that,” Cook said. Risks of macroeconomic issues such as an economic slowdown or currency fluctuations related to tariffs are difficult to quantify, “and we're not even trying to,” Cook said. None of Apple’s products was affected by the U.S. tariff on steel and aluminum, which took effect in June, nor two other Section 301 lists totaling about $50 billion in goods from China that were implemented.

Pier 1 Imports does not expect major ramifications from proposed 10 percent Section 301 tariffs on a wide range of goods from China (see 1807110050), the company said in a news release. "Consistent with recent years, approximately 59% of the Company’s fiscal 2019 net sales are expected to be derived from merchandise produced in China," the company said. "Of that amount, approximately half is expected to consist of product classes subject to the proposed tariff." While Pier 1 is looking at "strategies to mitigate the impact of the proposed tariff, including collaborative efforts with its vendor partners," it "does not expect financial results in fiscal 2019 to be materially affected," the company said. Still "there can be no assurance as to the final scope of the proposed tariff or the course or timing of trade negotiations," it said.

Though Hasbro products have escaped three rounds of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs implemented or proposed on Chinese goods, the toymaker is talking with the Trump administration and its congressional delegations “to ensure we’re communicating just how terrible an impact an ongoing tariff or trade war” would have on the company and the U.S. economy, CEO Brian Goldner said on a July 23 earnings call. “Thus far we’ve only seen non-material changes to the tariff schemes of other countries that don’t really impact our business,” he said. Hasbro’s toy business “has not been part” of Section 301 duties that took effect July 6, “but we continue to monitor the situation,” he said. “We continue to talk and firmly believe in a free-trade environment as the best course for our company and for the industry.” Hasbro sources about 65 percent of its product in revenue terms from China, but “we’re moving more production outside China,” Goldner said. “We found some great new partners and territories that provide very-high-quality product that can meet with our specifications,” he said. Hasbro also draws about 25 percent of its U.S. revenue from products sourced from manufacturing sites it runs in five states, Goldner said.

The implementation of new tariffs on uranium appears improbable despite the initiation of an investigation of possible trade restrictions under Section 232 (see 1807180029), said Kristoffer Inton, a stock research analyst with Morningstar. "We think it’s unlikely a tariff will be enacted, as we see little merit in the arguments laid out by Energy Fuels and Ur-Energy," he said in a research report on Canadian uranium company Cameco. "First, the key reason production from Kazakhstan has grown so much over the last decade is because it simply is home to low-cost uranium deposits," Inton said. "Roughly 12% of global reserves are found in Kazakhstan, second only to Australia." Also, "national security concerns seem unfounded given that the global uranium market is in oversupply and given that the two companies filing the petition claim that they can scale-up production quickly, if needed," he said. "Additionally, uranium could come from underfeeding, re-enrichment, or from Japan’s built-up inventory until mines expand production. This would seem to minimize concerns about a potential uranium shortage in the U.S."

Consumer electronics wearables will be one of six categories of sports and activity gear included in a “global product labeling database” that the Sports & Fitness Industry Association and the World Federation of the Sporting Goods Industry will partner on in about a month, said Alli Schulman, SFIA coordinator-communications and marketing, on a July 18 webinar to mobilize member company opposition to proposed 10 percent Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on sports equipment and accessories (see 1807190003). The database will “provide labeling requirements for 49 countries around the world." More details will be disclosed in an SFIA webinar Aug. 2, she said.

June retail sales increased 0.07 percent, seasonally adjusted, from May and were up 4.2 percent unadjusted from June 2017, “as economic growth continued despite the U.S. trade war with China and other countries," the National Retail Federation said July 16. “This is a healthy retail sales report and consistent with underlying economic momentum that has fueled a steady run of retail sales increases,” NRF said. “The big question is whether households can continue this spending pace.” The trade war is “the big risk to the outlook,” NRF said. It fears trade frictions with China and others “could raise prices while reducing consumer confidence and household buying power,” it said. June retail sales at electronics and appliance stores were below those of other consumer sectors, rising 1.6 percent year-over-year, but declining 0.4 percent, seasonally adjusted, from May, NRF said. Overall online and other non-store sales in June were up 7.3 percent from a year earlier and up 1.3 percent from May, it said. NRF is standing by its forecast that 2018 retail sales will grow by between 3.8 percent and 4.4 percent over 2017, it said.