Los Angeles — At the Los Angeles headquarters of Munchkin, one of the most innovative baby brands in the country, the White House’s steel and aluminum tariffs are impacting several of the company’s products.
“No one thinks about a baby spoon as a steel product,” Steven Dunn, Munchkin’s CEO and founder, told CBS News.
President Trump last week announced that tariffs on steel and aluminum would double from 25% to 50%, a move that took effect Wednesday.
“Tariffs should be strategic, Dunn said. “We need a tariff policy that doesn’t have the unintended consequences of putting 80% tariffs on a metal spoon.”
Dunn said making their popular soft bite baby spoon will cost 80% more because of the 50% steel tariffs, plus the existing 30% tariffs on Chinese imports.
“It’s a tariff on parents, and it’s a tariff on small and medium businesses throughout the entire country,” Dunn said, adding that tariffs affect almost all of the 500-plus products that Munchkin sells, the vast majority of which are made in China.
He said his profits have already taken a hit, and it’s not just consumers feeling the impact. After the tariffs were announced, he laid off workers for the first time in 35 years.
Munchkin said tariffs are also impacting popular products such as strollers and thermometers. Some products are being discontinued.
“It just will become unaffordable if we pass on the cost of the tariffs, it will make it too expensive,” Dunn said. “We don’t believe consumers will pay for it.”
Munchkin says manufacturing its products in the U.S. isn’t feasible.
“There isn’t the manufacturing base, the tooling equipment, the automation,” Munchkin said.
The White House’s shifting tariffs have created uncertainty for Munchkin.
Says Dunn: “It’s like being blindfolded, throwing darts at a rotating target.”
Journalist Jo Ling Kent joined CBS News in July 2023 as the senior business and technology correspondent for CBS News. Kent has more than 15 years of experience covering the intersection of technology and business in the U.S., as well as the emergence of China as a global economic power.
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