President Trump scolded Walmart on Saturday after the retail giant warned that his tariffs would force him to raise prices, writing on social networks that the discount chain could absorb the costs of the new import taxes of the Seywood passes.
“Walmart should stop trying to blame tariffs as the reason to increase prices through the chain,” Trump wrote in Truth Social, his social media site. “Walmart won billions of dollars last year, much more than expected.”
He called Walmart, the largest retailer in the country, who “eats rates” and keeps low prices. “I will be watching, and your customers will do,” he wrote.
Trump’s attempt to intimidate Walmart to maintain his stable prices occurred when the president, who campaigned in a promise to prevent inflation, is working to prevent his tumultuous commercial policy from increasing prices.
Walmart, who sells a wide selection of assets affordable to millions of Americans, said in Thorsday that Trump’s rates, even at his recently reduced levels, would soon force him to begin to increase prices.
“We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible,” said Walmart executive director Doug McMillon, in a call with analysts. But he warned that the company could not “absorb all the pressure” imposed by tariffs.
A Walmart spokeswoman, based in Arkansas and has more than 4,000 stores in the United States, repeats on Saturday that the company would do so it is better to prevent its prices from risking.
“We have always worked to keep our prices as low as possible and won,” said spokeswoman Molly Blakeman, in a statement after Trump’s post. “We will keep the prices as low as we can, as we can, given the reality of the small retail margins.”
The company, which says that it has 90 percent of Americans as their customers, has refrained from projecting profits for their current quarter due to rates. He said that his sales rose by more than 3 percent, to $ 112 billion, in the most recent quarter, which ended last month, and has projected that his income would grow from 3 to 4 percent this year.
Around a third of Walmart products come from abroad, said John David Rainey, financial director of the company. A large part of imported products come from China and Mexico.
Many retailers have prices collection heroes when accumulating products. Walmart is a consultancy to be more isolated from tariffs than some retailers because their foods are obtained in the United States.
It is only one of several companies that have said that they will be forced to transmit the costs of tariffs to consumers.
Ryan Sweet, the main American economist of the Oxford Economics advice firm, said Saturday that it was not surprising that tariffs began to increase prices, and added that companies never “eat all” costs. They must choose between lifting prices and saying goodbye, he said.
“It was the iceberg that we knew we were going to hit at some point,” Sweet said, adding: “This is just the beginning.”
The grocery stores, in particular, will have difficulty maintaining their prices given their “refined” margins, he added.
After threatening a total commercial war with China earlier this year, Trump retreated last Monday, at least temporarily, to impose the most overwhelming rates in China.
But much of the trade between China and the United States, the two largest economies in the world, had stopped due to rates.
At one point, Trump imposed a 145 percent tariff on Chinese imports, which led Beijing to respond with a 125 percent tariff on US assets. On Monday, countries reached a 90 -day agreement that reduced the United States rate on Chinese products to 30 percent and China on US goods to 10 percent.
In recent days, Trump has sought a dialogue with President Xi Jinping of China to reach a commercial agreement. The president said in an interview with Fox News broadcast on Friday that he was open to visit China to meet with the Chinese leader.
Trump has unconscious a minimum 10 percent rate for many countries around the world. In April, he postponed for three months a set of tariffs on boxes from countries that had shaken investors and conduct phrases from an imminent recession. But he did not go back to China’s tariffs until last Monday.
Trump has complained for decades that other countries have started the United States in commerce, and has sacrificed several justification for their tariffs, which is the tax to both adversaries and allies.
By placing tariffs on Canada and Mexico, he said, he was trying to force the country to prevent unauthorized immigrants and drugs from entrusting the United States.
In Fox News interview, Mr. Trump, who becomes a merchant teacher, said he had very distant ambitions for his global commercial policy.
“I am using trade to solve the scores and make peace,” Trump said.
Danielle Kaye Contributed reports.