Quarterly TV Imports Skewed Heavily Toward Largest Screen Sizes, Says ITC's DataWeb

Q1 TV imports to the U.S. from all countries declined 13.8% from a year earlier to 7.93 million sets, said Census Bureau data accessed Saturday through the International Trade Commission’s DataWeb tool. March TV imports of 2.2 million were 17.6% fewer sets than in February and 10.7% below the March 2019 volume. The unmistakable skew in Q1 was toward larger-screen TVs. Q1 imports of the largest sets, classified under the 8528.72.64.60 tariff code for screen sizes exceeding 44.5 inches, declined 2.8% in Q1 to 4.65 million, compared with the 13.8% decline for all sets imported. Q1 imports of the largest-screen 8528.72.64.60 goods were 58.6% of all TV imports, compared with only 52% in the same 2019 quarter. Mexico increasingly became the country of origin for U.S. TV imports, especially in the largest screen sizes. U.S. importers sourced 67.4% of their TVs in Mexico in Q1, compared with 37.7% in the 2019 quarter, when Section 301 tariffs weren’t yet in play on Chinese TV imports. Mexico was the source of 77.8% of the largest-screen-size TV imports compared with 57.7% in the 2019 quarter.