‘Beautiful girls do not need 30 barbies’: Trump threatens 100% tariff on toy manufacturer Matal
US President Donald Trump has threatened a 100% tariff on Matal, the creator of Barbie Dolls, the company said it would continue to produce toys abroad despite a plan to reduce dependence on sugar imports. Speaking from the Oval Office last week, Trump rapidly responded to the recent decision to maintain offshore production. “I have heard that Matal said,” Okay, we are going to the counter, we are going to try to go somewhere else. Let him go, “he said about Matal’s CEO Yon Craze. “We will put 100% tariff on her toys, and will not sell a toy in the United States, and this is their largest market.” Mattle recently announced “pricing action” in his American business, blaming the global trade policy and change in tariffs. During the income call in its first quarter, Craz reported that the firm was moving away from China as a manufacturing center, but did not operate back in the US. He cited cost-evil and productivity in other countries as the reasons for keeping production abroad.
Towmeters are rapidly worried about the impacts of Trump’s trade policy. With about 80% of global toy production in China, industry leaders have urged the administration to exempt toys from tariffs. The Toy Association warned of serious disruption and high prices. Trump, however, removed the concerns that girls do not need many dolls. During an interview, he said, “I don’t think a beautiful girl is needed – who is 11 years old – needs to be 30 dolls. I think they could have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just incredible. We had a trade deficit of hundreds of billions of billions of dollars with China.”Reacting to the price growth and similar moves by car manufacturer Ford, Trump said, “I think they are just saying that to interact with me.”
