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The CEO of Atlantic Vision, a fiber-optic product producer and supplier, says new tariffs announced will have “little or no impact” on his company’s profitability.
By: Brad Randall, Broadband Communities
New tariffs announced Wednesday by President Donald Trump will have “little or no impact” on the profitability of Atlantic Vision, or their arrangements with Chinese suppliers, according to the CEO of America’s largest independent supplier of private label fiber optic patch cords.
In comments provided to Broadband Communities on Thursday, Edward Berman, the CEO of Massachusetts-based Atlantic Vision, said the quality provided by Chinese suppliers “cannot be replicated in this country.”
“It is simply impossible,” he said.
“For example, a part that we sell for $4 costs about $14 when manufactured domestically,” he said. “Even if tariffs were to increase further it would not change the equation.”
Berman labels tariffs as ‘clearly inflationary’
Berman said Atlantic Vision has a 20-year history of doing business with partners in China.
“The quality and cost cannot be replicated in this country,” he said.
Berman also said pre-existing economic circumstance makes manufacturing Atlantic Vision’s products in the United States unfeasible.
“Additionally, there is no skilled labor base in the country to produce what we sell at the necessary scale,” he said.
While Berman expects the tariffs to have no impact on the profitability of Atlantic Vision, he called them “clearly inflationary to the consumer buying internet access or cloud type services.”
“The grand bargain that we made with the Chinese in the early 2000s was that they make it, and we buy it,” he said.
Berman said economic cooperation with China has been one of the most successful economic developments for the United States since the end of World War II.
“It has been one of the basic drivers in the long period of prosperity that has been achieved,” he said.
Berman’s comments come a day after Trump announced 34 percent tariffs on imports from China.
The tariffs join existing duties, which have already been imposed on China.
Collectively, Chinese imports now have a tariff rate of 54 percent, according to published reports.
‘How can anybody be upset’
According to Trump, the tariffs announced Wednesday on foreign imports are reciprocal, not preemptive.
He labeled Wednesday’s tariff announcements as “discounted,” arguing that they are justified because of existing situations with trade partners.
He said China, for instance, charges a 67 percent tariff to the United States currently, based on his administration’s calculations.
“That’s tariffs charged to the USA, including currency manipulation and trade barriers,” he said.
Trump said his administration cut those calculations in half. By doing so, they arrived at the tariff percentage that imports from foreign nations will be charged, he explained.
“They charge us, we charge them,” he said. “We charge them less, so how can anybody be upset.”
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