00:00The forceful tariffs promoted by President-elect Donald Trump would likely lead to higher prices for consumers,
00:06according to a top executive at Walmart, the U.S.'s largest company by revenue.
00:10It's not immediately clear how quickly tariffs could be implemented.
00:14The odds of a 10 percent across-the-board tariff in 2025 are low,
00:18J.P. Morgan's chief U.S. economist Michael Faroli wrote in a recent note to clients.
00:23There probably will be cases where prices will go up for consumers,
00:27John David Rainey, Walmart's chief financial officer, told CNBC regarding the impact on
00:32his company's prices of the roughly 10 percent tax on all imports and 60 percent tax on Chinese
00:38imports backed by Trump. Rainey's comments hint at the trickle-down impact of tariffs,
00:43as companies — Walmart in this case — pay the import tax to the U.S. Treasury,
00:47and often pass on the higher input costs associated with these fees to consumers.
00:52Tariffs are inflationary for customers,
00:54Rainey added in the interview published Tuesday alongside Walmart's quarterly earnings report.
00:59Economists largely agree tariffs would increase inflation, coming at an inopportune time for
01:04American consumers, as annual inflation is down from the four-decade high of over 9 percent
01:10to a still historically above-average 2.6 percent.
01:14Tariffs are a controversial policy among the most influential names in Republican politics,
01:18with critics including Elon Musk, the world's richest person and a close Trump advisor,
01:23who said earlier this month he's against sudden giant tariffs, and fellow billionaire and GOP
01:28megadonor Ken Griffin, who said Monday he's very anxious about the president's willingness
01:32to engage in tariffs as a matter of trade policy.
01:36For more on this story, check out Derek Saul's article in the link in the description.
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