Daniel Emerson, CEO of Light & Motion, was interviewed on Monday by Audie Cornish on the National Public Radio program All Things Considered. The story is about the third round of United States’ tariffs on China that started Monday.
These new tariffs tax a large percentage of the parts that Light & Motion uses in its bicycle, diving and photography lights.
Said Emerson in a statement, “What is crushing to our business as a United States-based manufacturer is that the tariffs do not apply to finished goods imported complete from China. In other words, these tariffs tax U.S. production, but give a free pass to our China-built competition.”
While this result seems counter to the intent of the tariffs, for the last decade U.S. policy has encouraged offshore production, and these tariffs continue that trend. While Light & Motion has assembled all its products in the U.S. for the last 25 years, the company buys a majority of its parts from China. These custom parts have supported over $1 million in custom tooling, along with electronics designed in the U.S. but produced in China.
Noted Emerson, “We are being taxed on all our parts, while the products that we compete with sail into the U.S. market tariff-free. These new tariffs send a clear signal that our Built in America Products are not welcome here. The tariffs direct Light & Motion to move production offshore, like our China built competition, in order to avoid tariffs.”
A transcript of the NPR interview is here.
