Photo courtesy of NAMM/Shutterstock.
On April 2, President Trump issued an Executive Order introducing sweeping new tariffs, including a 10% baseline on all imports and a 54% total tariff on Chinese goods, sparking global trade tensions. The move triggered sharp market declines, international retaliation — especially from China — and widespread criticism.
NAMM has responded that this new Executive Order will have “serious and devastating consequences for the music products industry, which is already facing challenges from the previous tariffs imposed on products imported from China, Canada and Mexico, as well as the additional tariffs on imported materials.”
The statement from John Mlynczak, NAMM’s president and CEO, continued:
“We believe that the imposition of these tariffs on the music products industry will cause U.S. businesses that manufacture guitars, pianos, violins, mandolins, woodwind and percussion instruments, electronic components and accessories to lose their global competitive advantage in producing high-quality, iconic musical instruments at both the professional and entry levels.
“The unique supply chains of the music products industry are also unfairly impacted by these tariffs. For example, while the share of all U.S. imports from China is 13.4%, the music products industry’s China imports are 43%. Vietnam is 4.2% overall, while the music products industry is 26%.
“We continue to urge the administration to exempt musical instruments and accessories, along with materials used to manufacture musical products, from these measures. The negative effects threaten the economic and cultural impact of U.S.-made musical instruments and accessories.
“Exemption from these tariffs for the music products industry will help safeguard the globally recognized American manufacturers of iconic musical products while sustaining competitiveness of our interdependent global industry without undermining the broader objectives of U.S. trade policy.”
The National Retail Federation’s executive vice president of government relations, David French, also released a statement on April 2 which read in part:
“Eighty-eight percent of voters say that small businesses play an important role in their local economy, according to an NRF poll conducted by Morning Consult. These tariffs will have a disproportionate impact on local communities and will be particularly harmful to small retailers … Even more so, the immediate implementation of these tariffs is a massive undertaking and requires both advance notice and substantial preparation by the millions of U.S. businesses that will be directly impacted. We encourage President Trump to hold trading partners accountable and restore fairness for American businesses without creating economic uncertainty and higher prices for American families.”
In February, Music Inc. spoke with Tom Sumner, president of Yamaha Corp. of America, which produces some of its entry-level instruments in China, regarding the developing tariff situation.
“It’s a developing situation we’re watching closely,” Sumner said at the time. “We’ve brought some products in earlier in case tariffs were implemented.”
This is a developing story.
