Amazon said it is not displaying tariff price hikes on products on its main website, denying an earlier report that it had planned to show consumers just how much President Donald Trump’s tariffs will raise the price of items. The company issued its statement swiftly after the White House publicly criticized the tech giant.
Punchbowl News first reported on Tuesday morning that Amazon was planning to display the surcharge from Trump’s tariffs on goods sold on its website, citing a person familiar with the plan. When asked later about the report at a White House press briefing, press secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Amazon of carrying out “a hostile and political act.”
“Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?” Leavitt asked. She declined to speak to the president’s relationship with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos — who has sought to make nice with Trump since his 2024 election win — but she reiterated her criticism of the company’s reported plan.
Soon after, Amazon issued a statement that such a plan was only in consideration for Amazon Haul, which is expanding to compete with e-commerce companies like Shein and Temu that largely sell dirt-cheap goods from China.
“The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered listing import charges on certain products,” an Amazon spokesperson told CNBC. “This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”
The spokesperson said later in another statement that the plan was “never approved” and “is not going to happen.” Amazon’s reported plan to highlight extra costs due to Trump’s tariff plan would likely affect how American consumers rate the president on his handling of the economy, an issue that helped propel him to victory in 2024. Recent polls show that Trump’s approval ratings have sunk over his first 100 days in office and that voters are unhappy with his handling of inflation and his sweeping plan on tariffs. Trump made a personal call to Bezos to complain about the report of Amazon’s plan, NBC News reported, citing a source familiar with the call. It’s unclear whether the call took place before or after the White House press briefing. Although Trump has delayed imposing higher tariffs on many countries, he is still engaged in a trade war with China that does not look likely to end anytime soon. Amazon’s third-party sellers, many of which sell goods from China, anticipate steep cuts in their profits due to the tariffs. Reuters reported Monday that some merchants plan to sit out or to limit discounts on Amazon’s Prime Day in July — typically the company’s biggest shopping event of the year — in the hopes of selling more items at full price as the cost of Chinese imports skyrockets.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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