Amazon is now denying media reports that it intended to add a “tariff tracker” to its items to highlight their cost of import fees.
Amazon shot itself in the face Tuesday with the hyper-partisan decision to show its customers how much tariffs have increased the costs of a particular product.
After the White House aggressively and accurately attacked the world’s biggest retailer, this very same world’s biggest retailer cucked out—by my watch—in a just a few minutes.
“The team that runs our ultra low cost Amazon Haul store has considered listing import charges on certain products,” Amazon wrote in a statement obtained by Zerohedge. “This was never a consideration for the main Amazon site, and nothing has been implemented on any Amazon properties.”
This could’ve quickly turned Amazon into the Bud Light of mass retailers. People are sick and tired of corporations making these kinds of political statements. And this would’ve been widely seen as a trillion-dollar corporation looking to shape Trump’s economic policy via bullying and blackmail. No good could’ve come from that, only blowback from half the country sick and tired of the politicization of absolutely everything.
Even more damaging for Amazon would’ve been the cost of stepping into the political arena. The White House made that perfectly clear by mentioning the media report about Amazon teaming up with a Chinese propaganda outlet.
Amazon was about to get dropped in the barrel and wisely ran away screaming, “UNCLE!” The White House was ready to go Defcon 1 exposing all of Amazon’s connections to slave labor, cheap labor, offshoring, and kissy-face relations with bad, bad people.
Overall, though, I’m in favor of this type of line-iteming. If Amazon were to include the cost of taxes, environmental regulations, and other costs added by local and federal governments to its list, I’d be fine with tariffs being added. People should know why something costs as much as it does. But according to the media report, Amazon was only going to go one way — China’s way. The Democrat Party’s way… That would’ve been a major mistake, especially now that we have a Republican White House that is not afraid of fighting back with the truth.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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