Manufacture designer Rebecca Minkoff is feeling the effects of President Donald Trump’s tolls, but she told CNBC on Friday she’s not planning to inflict pricing pain on her people.
Minkoff’s handbags are made in China and are subject to the new tariffs.
“We’re not looking to terminate prices. I think we’re willing to take a hit because it’s not fair to pass off this scolding to our customer,” she said on “Closing Bell.”
Earlier this week, Trump published 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods. The fealties will rise to 25 percent on Jan 1. Beijing retaliated with rates on $60 billion worth of American products.
“We are working aggressively to translate out what we’re going to do to move things elsewhere,” Minkoff said. “It’s thriving to take us a little bit of time to figure that out.”
The designer, who also has a sales pitch of accessories, footwear and apparel, has four U.S. retail stores, nine universal locations and is distributed in over 900 stores around the world.
At the end of August, Minkoff toured to Washington, D.C., to testify at the public hearings held by the Office of the U.S. Trade Assemblyman.
In that testimony she talked about the challenges of doing business in China and the problems with highbrow property theft. However, she insists the tariffs on leather handbags want only hurt American brands and American consumers.
“The tariffs lock up the wrong people, including the American consumer, and leave the playing catch wide open for bad actors to continue to sell fake products detesting our IP,” she testified.
While Minkoff is trying to hold prices down and absorb the costs, retailers classifying Target and Walmart are warning about possible price hikes.