Will New Trump Tariffs Bring U.S. Furniture Production Back?

Duties on imported furniture could go up substantially but insiders say the return of domestic production remains a challenge.

The furniture industry has been subject to the back-and-forth fight over tariff policies as much as virtually any other sector in the American market, with key supplying nations including China, Vietnam and India all being subjected to higher duties.

But even as those rates seem to have stabilized – China at 30 percent, Vietnam at 20 percent and India at the highest rate for any country, at 50 percent (all products containing metal from any country carry an additional 50 percent tax) – it appears the issue is far from over.

In August the president announced he was launching a “major tariff investigation on furniture,” threatening that additional, unspecified duties that may or may not be on top of existing rates could be enacted if the findings show unfair trade practices. He said there would be a decision made by October, which would coincide with the key High Point Furniture Market.

Right now, about 70 percent of all furniture is imported but the number remains as low as that only because upholstered products like sofas and chairs have a higher domestic manufacturing base. Still, even those companies making upholstery in places like North Carolina and Mississippi still get many of their components, including fabrics, threads and sometimes frames, from overseas suppliers.

Take out upholstery and the amount of domestically produced furniture drops to as low as 10 percent and it could even be lower. Again, some of the components in wood furniture for bedroom, dining and living products also come from foreign suppliers.

So, will even higher tariffs bring furniture production back to this country? As with so many other product categories, it is not just a matter of slapping on higher duties. Factories would need to be built, equipment and machinery specified, ordered and delivered and perhaps most of all, workers would need to be hired and trained to make furniture. And again, many of the components would still need to be imported since a domestic supply chain for these individual items no longer exists.

Those familiar with the furniture industry say all of this would take a minimum of 24 to 26 months to put in place and in some cases the timetable could be much longer. It means that any short-term return to large-scale domestic manufacturing of furniture is largely unrealistic despite political statements to the contrary. In the meantime if more drastic tariffs for imported furniture are put in place it could mean significantly higher prices for consumers – and that usually translates into less furniture being bought all around.

BACK TO NEWS