Mnuchin Speaks Regularly With Walmart CFO on Tariffs’ Consumer Impact, He Tells House

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin speaks “on a regular basis” with Walmart Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs. “I’m monitoring with him very carefully” the impact of the Section 301 tariffs on Walmart customers, Mnuchin told the House Financial Services Committee Wednesday under questioning from Rep. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa. Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly referenced Mnuchin’s testimony on a Q1 earnings call Thursday (see 1905230019) when he said the secretary had commented “that he is going to be very attentive to the impact on consumers” of the proposed List 4 tariffs on $300 million in Chinese goods not previously dutied. Mnuchin speaks to Walmart “because obviously, they have a lot of these consumer issues,” he told Axne. “The way the tariffs were designed was the last tranche was really the consumer issue,” he said. “My expectation is that a lot of this business will be moved from China to other places in the region, so that there will not be a cost” to consumers in the form of pass-along price increases should List 4 be imposed, he said. “There may be a small number of items where the tariff may be passed on,” and those will be addressed through an exclusion process that will launch as soon as the List 4 duties take effect, he said. Increased tariffs “will increase prices for customers,” said Biggs on a recent Walmart earnings call (see 1905160075). Walmart didn’t comment Friday on Mnuchin’s testimony.