--- title: Retail CEOs Say a 20% Border Tax Would Be Harmful for Shoppers description: CEOs of Best Buy, Target, Gap, Autozone, and other major retailers are in Washington this week to try to stop Donald Trump's 20% border tax from becoming a reality. authors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Economy and Politics - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit - Credit Cards - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2017-02-14T17:21:30.000Z' modified: '2024-05-16T12:13:29.000Z' section: Economy and Politics tags: - politics - Retail - Shopping - Target - Taxes - trump word_count: 477 canonical: https://money.com/trump-border-tax-imports-retail-prices-best-buy-target/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** Money may earn a commission when you click on the products and services below. Opinions are our own, but compensation and in-depth research determine where and how they appear. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/) about how we make money. ![Inside A Target Corp. Store Ahead Of Earnings Figures](https://img.money.com/2017/02/targetbordertax-em-473979064.jpg) *CEOs from Target and other major retailers are in Washington, D.C., this week to try to kill a possible 20% tax on imports.* A group of high-profile CEOs from Best Buy, Target, Gap, Autozone, and other major retailers is heading to Washington, D.C., this week in an attempt to convince lawmakers to kill a tax on imports, [Reuters](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-retail-exclusive-idUSKBN15T059) reports. The corporate leaders will meet with House Republicans to discuss a 20% tax on imports included as part of a tax reform proposal in summer 2016. (President Donald Trump floated a 20% import tariff during his first week as president as a way of paying for his proposed Mexican border wall.) Consumer advocates and critics have been quick to point out that [American shoppers](http://fortune.com/2017/01/26/donald-trump-mexico-pay-tax-wall/) would ultimately bear a large portion of the costs of such a tax, in the form of higher prices on alcohol, fresh produce, electronics, cars, and other imported goods. Consumers may also simply purchase fewer of these items as their prices increase—and it's this scenario that has some of America's largest retailers up in arms. Reuters notes that nearly all of the nation's clothing, shoes, and electronics are imported and the retail industry argues that a tax on these goods—and a wide variety of foods, automobiles, and more—would result in higher prices for consumers and decreased profits for sellers. The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) confirmed that a group of [retail CEOs would visit Capitol Hill](http://news.morningstar.com/all/market-watch/TDJNMW20170214301/update-target-gap-best-buy-and-other-retailers-going-to-dc-to-oppose-border-tax-report.aspx) this week "to meet with lawmakers and discuss pro-growth policies that will benefit both American consumers and job creators." The organization has already [announced its flat opposition](https://www.rila.org/news/topnews/Pages/Retailers-Unite-to-Stop-Harmful-Border-Adjustable-Tax.aspx) to the import tax. "The border adjustable tax is harmful, untested, and would put American retail jobs at risk and force consumers to pay as much as 20 percent more for family essentials," RILA president Sandy Kennedy said. President Trump has made a priority of creating or keeping manufacturing jobs in the U.S., but he has remained quiet about the widespread shedding of jobs by retailers [like Macy's](https://money.com/trump-macys-carrier-twitter-ford-tweets/). While an import tax would likely result in small price increases on clothing, food, and other fairly inexpensive merchandise produced beyond America's borders, the biggest and most obvious impact would be on higher-priced purchases, such as automobiles. The [*New York Times*](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/13/business/general-motors-mexico-pickups.html) reported this week that roughly one-third of the General Motors' and Fiat Chrysler's highly profitable pickup trucks are manufactured in Mexico, and an import tax on these could mean that sticker prices rise by hundreds, perhaps even thousands of dollars. “Automakers could possibly eat the cost of a 5 to 10 percent tariff, but not a tax of 20 or 30 percent,” Ron Harbour, an automotive analyst for the consulting firm Oliver Wyman, told the *Times*. “They would probably have to pass some of that on to consumers.” *Editor's note: This post has been updated to clarify the position of the Retail Industry Leaders Association. The group is opposed to a House Republican border tax proposal; it does not have a position on President Trump's proposal.* ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/trump-border-tax-imports-retail-prices-best-buy-target/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Economy and Politics", "item": "https://money.com/economy-and-politics/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Economy", "item": "https://money.com/economy/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Retail CEOs Say a 20% Border Tax Would Be Harmful for Shoppers" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/trump-border-tax-imports-retail-prices-best-buy-target/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/trump-border-tax-imports-retail-prices-best-buy-target/", "name": "Retail CEOs Say a 20% Border Tax Would Be Harmful for Shoppers", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2017-02-14T17:21:30.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/trump-border-tax-imports-retail-prices-best-buy-target/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/trump-border-tax-imports-retail-prices-best-buy-target/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-05-16T12:13:29.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Retail CEOs Say a 20% Border Tax Would Be Harmful for Shoppers", "articleSection": "Economy and Politics", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2017/02/targetbordertax-em-473979064.jpg", "width": 3200, "height": 2133, "caption": "Inside A Target Corp. Store Ahead Of Earnings Figures" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Brad Tuttle", "url": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/#author", "description": "Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals.\r\n\r\n", "image": "https://img.money.com/2014/01/Brad-Tuttle.png?w=226&h=247&crop=1", "alumniOf": "Columbia University School of Journalism, MS", "sameAs": [ "https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle", "https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2017-02-14T17:21:30.000Z", "description": "CEOs of Best Buy, Target, Gap, Autozone, and other major retailers are in Washington this week to try to stop Donald Trump's 20% border tax from becoming a reality.", "abstract": "CEOs of Best Buy, Target, Gap, Autozone, and other major retailers are in Washington this week to try to stop Donald Trump's 20% border tax from becoming a reality.", "@id": "https://money.com/trump-border-tax-imports-retail-prices-best-buy-target/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2024-05-16T12:13:29.000Z", "wordCount": 477, "keywords": [ "politics", "Retail", "Shopping", "Target", "Taxes", "trump" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Political economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_economy" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Economy", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy" ] } ] } ] } ```