Jasco Irked Tariffs Forcing It Into ‘Scouting Expedition’ for Non-Chinese Supply

Jasco Products didn’t conceal its anger in seeking exclusions from the 15 percent List 4A Section 301 tariffs it pays on the plastic AC outlet safety covers and seven other classifications of tech accessories it imports from China. Jasco is “being forced by its own federal government to undergo a worldwide scouting expedition” for alternative sourcing, “and is actively evaluating several dozen suppliers outside of China,” the supplier said in each of its eight exclusion requests posted Dec. 2 in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative’s public docket. Finding alternative sourcing “will take years and tens of millions of dollars along with extensive business disruption due to the time and resource commitment involved,” Jasco said. “It takes time to identify potential suppliers and perform audits to ensure that the factories meet Jasco’s rigorous standards for quality, safety, labor conditions, and environmental protections.”

Even if Jasco “qualifies viable factories,” it will take “tens of millions of dollars redeveloping existing products since tools and molds cannot easily be transferred between factories in different countries,” it said. Landing U.S. regulatory approvals for the redesigned goods also will be “time consuming and costly,” it said. The Trump administration “is essentially requiring Jasco to waste tens of millions of dollars redeveloping existing products Jasco already sells with no discernable return on investment at the expense of developing new innovative products to drive future growth,” it said. Jasco’s effort to shift sourcing outside China “all presupposes that these factories have readily available capacity they are not already utilizing for their existing customers,” the company said. “These factories will need to expand their operations significantly to support the volume from Jasco and other companies working to avoid Chinese tariffs which will take years.” USTR didn’t comment.