
Amazon.com Inc. became an early victim of impending tariffs Tuesday when the White House blasted the e-commerce giant over a report that Amazon planned to disclose to customers on its website the cost U.S. tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump will add to its products.
Amazon swiftly denied the Punchbowl report after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt upbraided the idea of Amazon’s alleged plans to disclose tariff costs next to listed products. “This is a hostile and political act by Amazon,” she said. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?”
Adding to the animus, President Trump directly called Amazon founder Jeff Bezos early Tuesday morning to express his displeasure about the report, according to an NBC News report, citing a source familiar with the call.
Amazon said it never considered listing tariffs on its main retail site or any company site. “The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store considered the idea of listing import charges on certain products. This was never approved and (is) not going to happen,” a company spokesperson said.
Under Amazon’s plan, as reported by Punchbowl, tariff-added costs would have been displayed next to a product’s listed price.
Other retailers have shown a willingness to highlight how new tariffs would inflate product costs. Shein and Temu, two fashion giants based in China, have added steep surcharges in recent days. Temu includes a line on its checkout tally showing an “import charge” that adds about 145% for each item.
Regardless of its plans, Amazon’s business faces immense consequences in the face of sweeping tariffs plans, chiefly a 145% levy on China where as many as 70% of Amazon goods are sourced, according to Wall Street analysts at Wedbush Securities. Merchants on Amazon’s shopping sites have already begun to hike prices of goods in anticipation of the tariffs, according to CNBC, and Amazon has begun emailing sellers to assess the impact of the tariffs.