US considering exempting car seats, strollers from Chinese tariffs

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By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Trump administration is considering exempting car seats, baby strollers, cribs and other essential items for transporting children from tariffs on China up to 145%, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.

Bessent said under questioning from Democratic Representative Ayanna Pressley at a House of Representatives Financial Services Committee hearing that those exemptions were under consideration. Pressley, of Massachusetts, noted that more than 3.5 million babies are born annually and almost all strollers are made in China. “Now that cost is going up,” she said.

In 2018, the Trump administration exempted some products produced in China from 25% tariffs including bicycle helmets and child-safety furniture such as car seats and playpens. However, car seat component parts, cribs, bassinets, diaper bags and wooden safety gates were not exempted.

Chris Peterson, the CEO of Newell Brands, the maker of Graco strollers, car seats and other children’s goods, said last week on an earnings call that approximately 97% of baby strollers and 87% of baby car seats in the U.S. are sourced from China. The company has hiked prices of imported baby gear products by about 20% because of tariffs.

Peterson said the company has not priced in the latest 125% tariff hike and has temporarily halted shipments from China as it sells a few months of inventory.

“At some point, we will begin to run out of inventory. Retailers will begin to run out of inventory and we will turn back on reordering from China,” he said. “When that happens, because the whole industry sources from China, we would expect that we and the rest of the industry will take additional pricing to offset the tariff cost.”

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Leslie Adler)