Trump’s Plan for a 24% Tariff on Japan Likely to Impact Camera and Lens Prices

President Donald Trump today announced a huge swath of global tariffs that, if enacted, would increase the cost of camera products imported from Japan in the United States by 24%. Products from China would get hit even harder with a 34% tariff.

Calling them “Liberation Day” tariffs, CBS News reports, the US president announced sweeping tariffs for a huge list of global products which includes a 10% baseline tariff for all US trading partners and reciprocal tariffs against what he referred to as the “worst offenders.” The first round would take effect on April 5 with the second round coming on April 9.

To this point, Japan had remained out of Trump’s trade war sights but the recent supposed partnership between it, South Korea, and China seems to have invoked his ire. Of note, Japan has denied any such discussion of a partnership took place and South Korean officials said China’s public announcement of an alliance was “somewhat exaggerated.”

Imports from South Korea will be taxed at 25%, Japan at 24%, and the European Union at 20%. China will get hit the hardest with a new 34% tariff.

“They do it to us, we do it to them. It can’t get any simpler than that,” the president said. Of note, any tariffs imposed by former trade partners were already in response to his first round of tariffs enacted earlier this year.

“Such horrendous imbalances have devastated our industrial base,” he added.

The president says these high tariffs would help convince foreign businesses to relocate factories to the United States while at the same time argued these taxes would, somehow, lower prices for Americans. Economists and those who understand how tariffs work — they are an import tax whose burden falls on the importer and then the domestic buyer — say it will do the opposite and likely boost inflation while also increasing costs.

The United States not only doesn’t have access to the raw materials necessary for the production of many of the tech products that will be affected by the tariff, but it also lacks manufacturing facilities and skilled labor to work in said facilities. It would take years to build up the infrastructure and talent to fill demand domestically notwithstanding the added cost of shipping in materials even if they could be acquired, since they don’t exist in the United States naturally.

U.S. stock futures crashed on news of the tariffs, CNBC reports. At the time of publication, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen more than 1,000 points (2.3%), while the S&P 500 fell 3.4%. Nasdaq futures fell harder by 4.2%.

If the tariffs are rolled out, expect Japanese camera companies operating in North America to announce across-the-board price increases to match the 24% tariff, just as Asus did when the previous China tariffs caused it to announce a blanket increase last month, unless specific exceptions are written into the import tax. Chinese brands like DJI and Viltrox will very likely be forced to do the same.

Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.