BURSTFormer Target executive Gerald Storch said that the effect of President Trump’s tariffs are “grossly exaggerated” in a Tuesday interview.
“I think this whole thing with the tariffs is grossly exaggerated by a factor of at least two,” Storch said on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.”
Storch said that “the tariffs are only in the cost of goods, they’re not in the retail price.”
“So, you put a tariff on the cost of the goods of 20 percent, doesn’t mean the retail price goes up by 20 percent,” he added.
The threat of tariffs has raised economic fears to a high level in the first few months of the Trump administration, with companies like Target and Best Buy previously expressing that shoppers would experience higher prices on certain goods as tariffs went into effect and other nations took retaliatory action.
President Trump has also vowed to impose on April 2 reciprocal tariffs that would be aimed at nations that have higher tariffs on U.S. imports than what the U.S. imposes on their exports. Trump signaled Monday that there could be extra tariffs on specific goods like automobiles, lumber and semiconductors coming as early as this week.
However, the president also said that he “may give a lot of countries breaks” when it comes to the reciprocal tariffs.
“It’s reciprocal, but we might be even nicer than that. You know, we’ve been very nice to a lot of countries for a long time,” Trump said at the White House Monday
Storch said Tuesday that he believes “people are hysterical” when it comes to the effect of tariffs.
“It’s not nearly the magnitude of what they’re talking about,” he added. “And keep in mind, the retailers are gonna do just fine no matter what happens, because if they have to pass on … a cost increase, they all will, at the same time.”
“And so prices will go up, their costs won’t go up in terms of labor and rent and things like that, proportionally, and they’re gonna do just fine ” he continued.