Some American companies are quietly celebrating tariffs, as large import duties imposed on Chinese, Mexican and Canadian goods means more profit for them.
The U.S.-based companies who source or produce their goods domestically are privately very pleased to see international competitors sweating their supply chains.
“US companies that can minimize their costs vs. the competition will have a significant competitive advantage,” said Jeff Sharlach, an associate professor at the NYU Stern School of Business. “But there are a small number of companies where products don’t have any ties to overseas sourcing.”
One company whose C-suite is bullish on tariffs is Anheuser-Busch, the U.S. beer behemoth which owns Budweiser and Michelob, insiders said.
Anheuser-Busch employs nearly 18,000 people in the U.S., with more than 100 brewing facilities across 24 states — and buys more than $700 million in ingredients from American farmers each year, according to the company.
And 99% of the beer the company sells in the US is made here, potentially putting it at a distinct advantage over foreign competitors such as Constellation Brands’ Corona, which is made in Meixco, and Molson Coors, which is partly headquartered in Canada. Under the Trump tariffs, prices of those brands on US shelves could go up.
Salad seller Sweetgreen has long touted its commitment to locally-sourced ingredients — something which may turn out to be a boon against competitors who rely on imported produce from Mexico and Canada.
“We are a 100% U.S. based company, and the majority of our supply chain spend is with domestic suppliers. In fact, a significant portion is sourced locally from around the U.S. communities we serve. We do not have significant international exposure,” Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman told The Post.
President Trump rolled back into office with a vow of imposing stiff new tariffs on nations around the world — but has lately zeroed in on America’s three largest trading partners: China, Mexico, and Canada. Trump briefly imposed double digit import duties this week on the trio of nations before walking back the Mexico and Canada tariffs on goods covered under the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement which he negotiated in his first term.
Congressional Republicans — long wary of tariffs have mostly made peace with Trump’s use of them.
“President Trump is right in using tariffs to level the playing field to ensure that the products made by our friends, neighbors, and fellow Americans are not being undercut by their foreign competitors, many of which are known for using subpar materials and relying on slave labor, or hostile governments who will often devalue their currency and put up unfair trade barriers for the sole purpose of pricing American goods out of their markets,” said Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ).
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