Tariffs Are ‘Wild Card’ That Will Threaten Robust US Retail Sales, Says NRF 

A Trump administration order imposing the third tranche of Trade Act Section 301 tariffs on imports from China “could come any day, and retailers have been bringing in record amounts of merchandise ahead of that in order to mitigate the impact on their customers,” reported the National Retail Federation Monday. “Retail sales are growing stronger than expected this year thanks to tax cuts and job creation, but tariffs are the wild card that threaten to throw away a significant portion of those benefits.” U.S. consumers “appear to be spending money on goods ahead of the tariff price increases that will eventually come,” said NRF. “But there could be a rocky road ahead as the impact of tariffs begins to be more fully felt.” U.S. retail ports handled 1.9 million 20-foot-long containers or their equivalents in July, a 2.8 percent increase sequentially from June and 5.6 percent increase from July 2017, it said. August was estimated at 1.92 million containers, up 4.8 percent year-over-year, it said. August was the third month in a row to set a new record for the number of containers imported during a single month, it said.